


Dreams and Nightmares

by total_wrecker



Category: Mad Father, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Epilepsy, Multi, Well - Freeform, half-colombian marco, heterochromia eren, i accidentally deleted the first one, let me know if I get a term wrong, mad father au, mad father inspired, my second time putting this fix up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-02-14 06:47:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 78,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2181960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/total_wrecker/pseuds/total_wrecker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco Bodt is the epileptic son of a famous doctor, who has been suffering from intense nightmares and strange dreams lately, so he takes medication to prevent them. He loves his Papa, and Papa loves him as well.</p><p>When caught in a storm during a delivery, Jean and Eren, two self proclaimed childhood frenemies, seek refuge in the Bodt's mansion, meeting Marco. After a while, the two boys become friends with Marco.</p><p>Papa's perfectly fine with this. He just insists that they follow one rule. </p><p>Never enter the basement.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey this is my second fanfic for the SNK fandom!  
> So, during the summer, I decided I would watch a few walkthrough of the game called "Mad Father", since I saw a few posts flying around on tumblr. Needless to say, it gave me inspiration for this fic. I have been meaning to write some ot3 goodness lately. Y'know, no Dark!Character stuff ^^'  
> Have I myself played the game? No. I'm too much of a scaredy cat. If I had an audio recording of me watching the mad father videos, the sounds I was making would make that clear. It was clear to my actual cats, they just gave me disapproving looks though.
> 
> I accidentally deleted the first version, so I'm putting this back up DX Sorry!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of you were rereading this after Sep. 19, I added what Marco's secret was. I was rereading the whole thing and I thought it was weird. And I think it would be easier to understand what else happens later on.

This place Marco was in was pitch black all around him, filled with the smell of disinfectants, and something that was like rotting meat. He didn’t know where exactly he was, but he kept running forward. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt as if his life depended on it. Without warning, he suddenly ran into a wall. Alarmed, Marco started grasping at it, trying to figure out which way to go. To his horror, it turned out to be a real dead end. “NO!!” He started banging his fist against the wall in a feeble attempt to get the wall to open.

He then felt someone grab him from behind. Marco screamed, and whoever had him leaned into his ears, and he felt something sharp being pressed against his neck. “Got you.”

Marco shut his eyes, fearing that it was all over. When nothing happened, he tried opening them up, only to find it extremely difficult to do. When they were open, he blinked several times when he was able to see his surroundings. He was on a train, covered in a wool blanket to keep him warm.

_… Just another nightmare._

He let out a sigh, both of annoyance and relief. He was glad he was not in some dark dead end, probably about to get murdered… but that was the fifth nightmare this week. They were minor at first; just him in the dark… but they gradually escalated. The smells, running for his life, the wall, an official dead end… having someone grab him from behind was a new bit though. “When are they going to end?”

They started after grandparents died. He lived with them after his mother died, apparently from a sickness that she always had. But now, they were gone, from what the doctor diagnosed as heart attack and liver failure.

Now he was going to where he used to live with his mother. To his father’s place. Back to Papá.

Marco stared out of the window he was next to, watching as the train was going over a river. He hadn’t seen his father ever since his mother died… His parents seemed to have loved each other, from what he could tell from what he saw anyway… but, when his mother died, he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents. Part of him wondered if his father sent him to their place because he didn’t want to deal with him. He did like them, but he always felt that he was… betrayed, in a way.

It has been roughly six years since then.

He suddenly heard one of the attendants speak out loud. “We will be arriving to Mirror Lake Station. If this is your destination, please prepare to get off. We will be arriving to Mirror Lake Station in ten minutes.”

When the announce finished, Marco hugged himself, hoping that the nightmares would end soon…

-

Marco heaved his suitcase up onto the pick up station, watching as several carriages went off. He was told that his father would be picking him up from the station. Marco swallowed, hoping that the entrance wouldn’t be… exaggerated. Papá, whose real name was Kas Bodt, was a doctor famous for surgeries, mostly reconstructive and plastic, and developing and improving medical treatments. Thus, his father was rich.

Despite the national fame, the public didn’t know anything about Mrs. Bodt, let alone Marco. He was surprised when he learned that he was going back to live with Papá. He was almost certain that like the world around him, Papá didn't know he existed. Before he arrived to the station, Marco dreaded that when his father showed up, the press will be going down on him like a pack of hungry dogs… but, there wasn’t that many people around. Well, it was nighttime, so it would make sense. He leaned against his suitcase, drumming his fingers. He was glad that it was a warm spring night, almost summer like. He then saw a carriage pull up in front of him. Alerted, he stood up and watched as the carriage door opened and saw who stepped out.

Papá stood there, looking at Marco in disbelief. He had aged a bit, but he still looked the way Marco remembered him. His eyepatch that was on the right side of his face, a result of an accident that he was in when he was younger, was still recognizable. Marco chewed his lip, worried. “H-hello Papá…”

His father remained quiet, slowly approaching Marco. When there was a foot of space between them, Marco stiffened and looked Papá directly. Without warning and to his surprise, his father pulled him into a tight embrace. “Oh… Marco…” Marco’s eyes widened as he heard his father’s voice for the first time in years, still as gentle as he remembered, “It’s really you…” He then felt Papá’s hand on his hair. “I... I thought I would never see you again…”

Overtook by the sudden but familiar affection, Marco hugged his father back. “… I missed you Papá…”

“I missed you too… I’m sorry I didn’t contact you at all, for all of these years…” After a moment, he pulled away from Marco, “I… I lost contact with your grandparents... I tried multiple times to find them some how, but when I was told that they died… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Marco shook his head, feeling happiness at his warm welcome. “Papá, no, don’t apologize…” He tried to smile at his father. “… I’m just glad you don’t mind having me back.”

Papá didn’t respond for a while, and proceeded with picking up Marco’s suitcase. “Come on Marco, let’s go home.” He stood to the side for Marco to get into the carriage first.

Stepping in, Marco sat down and watched as his father climb on after him, pulling the suitcase with him. As soon as the door closed, Marco felt the carriage move, startling him a bit. He remained quiet, and watched as his father pulled out a box that had a bow tied to it. “Here, for you.”

Marco hesitantly took the box, and looked back at Papá, who chuckled lightly. “Open it.” Curiously, Marco undid the bow and took of the lid, looking inside. He saw three small balls of fur, nestled against each other, one white, the second a light brown color, and the third a dark brown or black color. Marco blinked in realization.

They were his rabbits, Marshmallow, Cinnamon and Chocolate. The train forbidden animals on board, not even as cargo. So Marco had reluctantly gave them to his old neighbor instead.

Dumbfounded, he stared at his father, who merely chuckled at Marco’s expression. “I remembered how much you loved the rabbit I gave you for your fourth birthday. I wasn’t too surprised when I found out you had gotten some more of them.”

Marco picked the three bunnies out of the box, and stared at his father. “How… how did…”

“I pulled a few strings. Figured that you would need some friends to help you with resettling. The pen that you had for the old rabbit from before is still at home, so you can let them run around there.”

Shyly, Marco nodded. “Thank you Papá…” He set the rabbits down in his lap, feeling them nestle down. He stroked his hands over them, glad to feel their softness again.

_I’m so glad they’re here with me and Papá… why is he doing this though?_

He looked back up to Papá, confused by everything.

“… Why are you being so nice? You were the one who sent me away.”

His father remained quiet for a while. “… You don’t remember the events that happened.”

“H-huh?”

“It was for your own good. It was a while after your mother died. You started having intense nightmares. Very intense ones, and they continued for a long time… I asked that your grandparents would take you in so that you wouldn’t have to deal with the house.”

“The house?”

Papá nodded. “Whenever I asked what the nightmares were about, you told me it always seemed to be something bad happening in the house… I figured that if you were out of there for long enough, the nightmares would stop…”

“… Well, it must have worked… I don’t recall the nightmares though…”

“… Well,” Papá stood up and sat next to Marco, “It’s for the best…”

Marco nodded, wondering if he should tell Papá about the nightmares he was experiencing now… Maybe they were the ones that he had when he was younger? He grimaced at the very thought… Papá noticed and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“… I…” He swallowed, deciding he should tell him. “I have… been having nightmares again… they started after Grandpa and Grandma died… I was just wondering… if they were possibly the ones that you just told me about…”

His father frowned, and rubbed his chin. “Hmmm… Did you recognize anything in the dreams?” Marco shook his head. “… I doubt that these nightmares are the same as before, since you were able to identify things in the previous ones… does that help?”

Marco smiled a bit. “A little… thanks…”

Papá smiled and put his hand on Marco, pulling him close. “Anything for you…” Marco smiled at the embrace. He leaned in a bit closer to Papá. “… There’s just… one thing I need to ask…”

Marco’s smile dropped at the seriousness in Papá’s voice. He looked up at him, worried. “Wh-what?”

“… Has anyone, anyone besides your grandparents, learned of your secret?”

_Oh. That secret._

“… No… no one else…”

He heard his father sigh in relief. “Good. We’ll need to make sure that only the main servants know of it, just in case if anything related to it happens.”

“That’s fine…” Marco’s finger ran over one of his bunnies’ ears.

His secret was that he had epileptic seizures. They had always been around since birth, and he had to take medicine in the hope that by they would be done by the time he was an adult. They had became less frequent as he got older, but would still catch him off guard. He hated that he had to hide this secret for so long… but there was nothing he could do about it. It was just the way it was… and nothing could change it. It was for his safety after all.

After a few minutes, he felt himself starting to drift to sleep. “Papá… I’m tired…”

“Do you want to sleep?”

“Mmm… but…” Marco hesitated. He didn’t want to have any more nightmares.

“… Don’t worry.” Marco felt Papá rub his shoulder. “I’ll be here… and…” Marco watched as his father reached into his coat pocket before holding out a small bottle.” I can give you some medication for the nightmares. It’ll probably make you a little sick in the morning, and will need to be taken at least everyday, but it’s safe to take with your seizure medicine… safer than when you had the first set of nightmares.”

Marco hesitantly reached for the bottle. “… Thank you…” He read the instructions, which said that he had to use the cap to measure the medicine. Opening the bottle up, Marco carefully poured a clear liquid into the cap. When he got it to the point that it was the right amount, Marco lifted the cap to his mouth and took a quick gulp. He made a face at the medicine’s taste. “It tastes… a little bitter.”

Papá let out a small chuckle. “Yes, I know… but it will work. Trust me.”

“… Alright…” He leaned back onto his father, falling asleep. When he closed his eyes, he hoped that he would be able to get some sleep without a nightmare to wake him up… Again.

-

Marco didn’t feel betrayed anymore after Papá explained why he was sent away. After spending some time in the mansion where he used to live in, he felt that maybe he was being a little unfair towards Papá.

As of the medicine, it did work, like Papá said it would. The nightmares stopped when Marco was taking it. After a few days, Marco stopped to see what would happen without it. Another nightmare occurred, so the next day, he resumed with the medicine.

A few months later, his father gave him a new medicine, telling him that it would work without making him sick, and that the effects lasted longer than the first one. It did prevent nightmares, and he didn’t have to take it as frequently… But it made him sleep more. And while he never had a nightmare… he never had good dreams either…

After a whole year, Marco wanted to know if he could finally stop with the medication. He was fine for a few months… but then the strange dreams started. Not necessarily nightmares, but strange… scared that his nightmare fit was starting all over again, Marco started medication again. And stayed on it for two more years.

Marco's seizures came and went. Papá was constantly giving him some new medicine for better treatment, and never wanted Marco to be left by himself for too long, especially if Marco had somehow became sick with something. Whenever Marco did have one, one of the servants would immediately contact his father, who would leave whatever he was doing to get to him. Even if he was still at the hospital that was in the next town, while home was in the country side.

Through all of it… Papá continued to support him. Despite Papá having a lot of work, both him and Marco worked to restore their relationship, which they did... But unfortunately, their bond was severed when Marco learned his father's own secret.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally gonna be JeanMarco, but let's just say I have fallen too far down into the ErenMarco hole... so I decided to go with an OT3 story instead ^^  
> And writing my other fic has led to a bad habit of hurting Marco somehow QAQ WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!  
> There is a citation for a head canon that inspired me a bit at the bottom. Please read the chapter so that you understand!  
> Comments are appreciated!!  
> -  
> Update! Floor count and placement of rooms has been changed, since it was driving me nuts that I couldn't find any references to 5+ floor mansions DX  
> If anyone knows a thing or two about mansions with multiple floors, lemme know and maybe I'll change it back.

-4 Years Later-

It was raining heavily, making Jean pull his jacket a little tighter to protect the body heat that he was sure was the last thing keeping him alive right now. He was going to have some breakfast when his boss told him that he had to take a delivery to some location that was 100 miles away at the least, and the carriages were unavailable, so he had to use a bike, so he had to leave before eating if he had any chances of getting to the place before dark. And he had to take Eren, a kid who Jean grew up with, with him, who was right behind him. Splendid. Before they could make it halfway to the next town, it started to rain on the two, and it made the roads muddy and thus too dangerous to ride.

“Damn, wish I brought my coat instead,” Jean bitterly snarled as he continued guiding his bike down the muddy road, shivering. His stomach let out a displeased growl. “Geeze, I should have just passed this assignment down to Connie… but then he would have complained about me owing him and Sasha lunch… ugghh…” Spotting a sign post, he walked up to it, setting his bike against it. Studying it, he saw most of the letters on it had faded. “Shit. Jaeger, I need to see the map.”

Glaring at Jean, Jaeger pulled out his map and Jean went up to look at it. He managed to match the part of the sign that read “Lake Road” to a street on his map that read ‘Mirror Lake Road’, which was the road he was heading down now… and he saw that it was actually going towards the north, while he should have been heading west. “What the fuck?”

Eren groaned. “Please don’t tell me that we took the wrong way.”

Earlier, the two of them came to a fork in the road, and debated which way to take, and they ended up with the right. While Jean was studying the map to figure out what happened, he saw that it was the left pathway that would have taken them to the town. “DAMMIT!!” In frustration, he kicked the sign, making a few splinters fall.

“Great, now we can say goodbye to that tip.” Eren muttered as he pulled his bike to the road, he continued talking to himself. “Now we have to turn around-” Just then, there was a sudden boom of thunder, making both of them freeze. “… Or just find some shelter!” Jean nodded and started running his bike down the road next to Eren, praying that he wouldn’t get struck by lightning.

After ten minutes, he was looking at the map, hoping that there was some kind of inn or restaurant nearby. “Come on, this is totally fucked up…” He looked up, hoping that he might see at least some kind of sign that the sky would be clearing up soon. Nope, still grey. Growling, he looked over in the direction of several hills… when he spotted a rooftop past them. “Hey, Jaeger, I think we may be able to go there!” He pointed to the rooftop that sat in the distance.

“Great, lets go,” Eren said as they started going for the hills, following a small dirt path, unlike the mostly gravel one he was just on.

“God, please tell me they have food,” Jean prayed as his stomach growled again. When he made it to the top of one of the hills, the whole building came into view.

It was a mansion, one of the older ones he’d occasionally come across when on two day long deliveries that usually called for a carriage. Both him and Eren stared at it in silence. Eren broke the silence. “DAMN.” Jean hated to admit it, but this mansion was definitely one of the most impressive ones he had ever seen. He wouldn’t be surprised if it used to be a miniature castle or something. Drawing closer, he noticed that there was a garden that was in almost full bloom. Weird. It was barely the beginning of spring.

_Maybe it’s just a bunch of ever greens or something… or exotic plants… yeah, these are rich folks anyway._

Finally making it to the door, Jean grabbed the knocker and brought it down against the wooden door. After several knocks, Jean stopped and tried to make himself look a bit more presentable as possible; They had to get in from the storm, and he figured that looking good would decrease the chances of being sent away instead. After a moment, the door opened. A maid with blonde hair stood there, holding the door open. “May I help you two?”

Eren nodded, “Uh, yeah, we kinda got caught out in the storm, and I need a place to stay… for now. The both of us were actually on heading to the next town to deliver something.”

The maid stood there for a moment, expressionless, making Jean think that she would slam the door on them. To his surprise, she opened the door wider, stepping aside. “Please come in. I’ll have someone take care of your bikes, just leave them outside.” Nodding in thanks, Jean set his bike again the wall before stepping in, followed by Eren. Closing the door, the maid said, “Take off your jackets, and if you want, I can give you both a set of dry clothes.”

“I dunno, I mean, we really need to take a delivery to a town nearby.” Jean held up a brown package that was protected in his jacket, showing it to the maid. “See we accidentally took…” He went silent when the maid’s eyes narrowed at the package, coming closer to Jean.

She looked at the sticker on the brown paper. “… To Dr. Kas Bodt?”

Jean nodded. Jean had heard of him a few times, but despite hearing he was loaded, he never had made any effort to make deliveries to the place he worked at, but today was his lucky day… or unlucky day. Both him and Eren had heard of horror stories of deliveries missing their deadline because the guards would think it was a fraud simply so the courier could sneak in and steal stuff from the hospital and Doctor’s office. He bit his lower lip in worry.

Eren noticed and started backing Jean up. “This isn’t our company’s first delivery to this customer, but we need to-”

“There is no need to worry, I believe you… And the owner of the mansion happens to be your customer. The place you were taking the delivery was his office, but he will be here shortly, so you don’t need to worry about it being late.”

Jean blanked out for a moment, barely believing his luck. “… I… Uh…” He suddenly heard another clap of thunder, snapping him out of his solid state.

The maid’s face returned to her unreadable expression. “You may want to stay for the night. I doubt this storm will be over anytime before dark.” She held out her hand. “I’ll take care of the package.” Quietly, Jean gave it to her, watching as she turned back around. “Up on the second floor, you will find the guest bedrooms with dry clothing on the left, pass the library, pick whichever ones you want,” she instructed pointing to a stairwell. “If you have the urge to explore, I’ll warn you that only the ground floor to the the third floor may be searched. The floors beyond that and basement are private, and there are locked rooms that you are forbidden to go into.”

Nodding in acknowledgment of the terms, Jean and Eren headed for the stairs, the former taking off his jacket. As he was walking up the steps, he noticed someone at the next flight of stairs, looking down from the railing. Jean couldn’t see who it was… but it wasn’t Jaeger, who had already gone to the rooms. “… Hello?” The person Jean called out to must have heard him, judging by how it flinched and ran off, going further up. “… Weird… but totally not Jaeger.” Figuring it must have been another servant, Jean continued upwards.

When he got to the library doors, he went left and saw several doors down the hall. Trying the first door, it opened and he looked inside. There was a dresser with a bed, a table, and a fireplace that was currently unlit, but the materials were right next to it. “Damn, why the hell is a castle owner using a peasant delivery system?” He set his jacket onto the chair before opening the dresser, finding shirts in one drawer, pants in the next one, and socks and underwear in the last one. Picking something out of all of the drawers, he threw the dry clothes onto the bed before proceeding to change.

When he was in dry clothing, he looked at himself in the mirror on the nightstand. He was wearing a white shirt that felt incredibly soft, and well fitted pants that were probably made from wool. “Kinda glad I didn’t take the right way,” he muttered to himself.

He then heard a door opening… but no the bedroom door. He looked over and saw that there was a bathroom connected to the bedroom. He watched as Eren stepped out, a little wet... and butt naked. Eren looked up and noticed Jean. Both boys stared at each other… until… "WHAT THE HELL KIRSCHTEIN?!” Eren ran back into the bathroom. “I can’t believe you saw me naked!!”

"How the hell was I suppose to know you were in here?! I’m not happy about it either! Mikasa is the one I would have wanted to see!” Jean went quiet after realizing what he said.

There was a long silence before Eren broke it. “Really? You’re going to say you want to see my sister naked, in front of me of all people?”

“… Sorry.”

“Ugghh… just hand me some clothes.”

Jean went back to the dresser and pulled out some clothes that were Eren’s size. He went back to the door, knocking it. “Here.” It opened briefly as Eren’s hand shot out and snatched the offered clothes before closing again, followed by the sound of water splashing, probably a bathtub.

Jean then heard a faint knock at the door. “Hello? Um, I brought you both some food, if you wanted some.”

Food. That was sold for Jean. “Just a sec!” Jean walked over to the door and opened it. When he did, he saw a boy a bit older than him, and much taller as well, standing there. He had brown hair that was cut short and had green eyes and a nervous expression as he held a tray with two soup bowls, several pieces of bread, an apple and a salad. “Thanks, I got it,” Jean said as he took the tray for him.

“Alright, let any of the servants know if you have any questions.”

Jean nodded in thanks as the boy started to walk away, closing the door with one hand as he balanced the food tray with the other one. As soon as it was closed, Jean went over to the table and completely devoured one bowl of soup and half of the bread. “Ohhh… that was good…” Jean leaned back in his seat when he finished, patting his stomach. “I seriously thought I was gonna starve to death out there…” While staring at the ceiling, he heard several voices outside talking… no, more like arguing… Curious, he stood back up and pressed his ear against the door.

“The young master has already requested that you would leave him alone.” That was the boy who brought him the food, but he sounded more aggressive than when he was giving Jean food.

“I just want to ask him a few questions…” Jean didn’t recognize that voice, but it was male, and sounded smooth… but also made him kind of uncomfortable.

“What is it about the master’s request that you seem to be unable to comprehend?” Didn’t recognize that voice either, but it was also male and deeper than the other two voices.

“Nothing, I just think he’s just being unreasonable.”

“I wonder why.”

There was a light chuckling. “When either of you boys see him, let him know that I wish to speak to him, before tomorrow… and if he refuses, I’ll take the matter up with Dr. Bodt.” Jean listened to footsteps walking further, probably back to the stairs.

He stayed against the door, still eavesdropping. “God, I hate him.” That was the green eyed boy just now.

“We can’t do anything about him, he’s Doctor Bodt’s assistant. And we all know the doctor has liked his work so far...”

The voices started becoming softer, and harder to hear, meaning that they were going further away. When Jean couldn’t hear either one of the voices anymore, he hesitantly opened the door peeked his head out, looking in the direction that the voices were. No one was there. “… Food and entertainment in one place, huh? This is turning out to be better than I thought…” He was about to close the door when he recalled what the maid said about him being allowed to look around. He wasn’t sure if he should though. “… Ah, what the hell. Might never get this chance again. And I sure as hell ain’t waiting for Jaeger.” He opened the door wide and went out into the hallway. He then stopped. “Better leave a note…” He went back in and pulled a piece of paper out of his jacket that had somehow remained reasonably dry. Pulling out a pencil as well, he wrote down a few things and placed it next to Jaeger’s soup bowl.

Going out once again and leaving the door open a crack, he went over to the stairs and figured to see what was in the library, which was right next to the hall. Jean opened the door a bit more before going in. As he looked around, he just kind of drifted in, amazed. Mostly by it sheer size. He usually wasn’t into the whole book stuff, but he had to admit that the place itself was fucking impressive, size included. It seemed like the library was also two floors, since he saw another stairwell inside, next to the walls. He walked in the direction of the windows that were there, showing a very grey sky. The storm wasn’t gonna let up soon.

Looking down at his feet, he suddenly saw a small shadow coming towards his from above. “What the hell?” He looked up and something landed on his face. Something that was soft, and fluffy. Bracing himself from falling to the floor, Jean stayed stock still, trying to figure out what the fuck was on him. It was probably a mammal of some kind. He then heard footsteps run down the stairwell from the side.

“Oh, oh my god! I’m sorry about!! I’ll get Marshmallow off you!” Marshmallow? The footsteps from the stairs approached him, and he felt the fluff being removed from his face. When it was, Jean saw what the fluff was.

A bunny.

A white, small, fluffy bunny.

Oh god, he hated bunnies. He was bitten by some when he was a little kid, several times, and then chased by them. He watched the rabbit’s face as it withdrew from him. Jean then looked at who took it off.

It was a boy, more than likely his age. He had black hair that was cut short, his bangs separated evenly, and brown eyes. But the most noticeable features he had were his freckles. They were dusted all over his face, continuing down his neck, but were eventually covered by his shirt’s collar. “I’m sorry about this, Marshmallow accidentally jumped off the railing up there.” The boy – Jean figured that he would call him Freckles if he didn’t know his name - tried to smile at him, but he looked… anxious.

“It’s fine. Just as long as it doesn’t bite me,” Jean replied, looking at the rabbit in Freckles’ arms.

It was settling down when there was another clap of thunder, making the both boys and the rabbit jump, the latter which ran off. “No, Marshmallow, it’s okay!” Freckles ran after the bunny, which went under a bookcase. He groaned quietly and bent down to look at where the bunny was hiding, “I-it’s just a storm Marshmallow… Every… thing…” Now he crawled under it a bit, trying to grab the bunny, “… Will… be… fine…” After a few attempts the boy sighed. “… Okay, I’ll let you stay there for a while…” The boy tried to move out, but stopped. “… Uh… sir? I don’t want to bother you, but can you help me? I’m stuck… I think my shirt was caught on something…”

The boy’s voice sounded so miserable that Jean pitied him. “Alright, gimme a sec.” He approached the bookcase and kneeled down before seeing what was making Freckles stay in place. He saw that the shirt’s collar was snagged on one of several hooks that were attached on the bottom of the case, and saw the rabbit was against the wall, too far for either one of the boys to reach. Figuring that all he could do was free the boy, he reached to nudge the collar of the hook that it was caught on. “Can you move now?”

“Y-yeah. Just gimme a sec…” The boy pulled himself out from underneath, and looked up to Jean. “Thank you… Oh, let me introduce myself. I’m Marco Bodt…”

Jean blinked, not sure he heard the last name right. “Bodt? As in the guy who owns the place?”

“Uh… No… yes… I mean… Kas Bodt is… my dad…”

Huh, so that must make him the ‘young master’ that he heard about earlier. “Huh… never heard that he had a son…”

Marco bit his lip upon hearing that. “… Uh, my dad doesn’t usually talk about family… and I doubt he has ever talked about me to anyone…” He shyly scratched his cheek as he made eye contact with Jean again, before turning his gaze away. “I better go. Need to find some food to lure Marshmallow out-”

“Marco! There you are!” Jean blinked when he recognized the voice. It was the one that made him uncomfortable, despite its smoothness. He watched as Marco, tensed up, biting his lower lip. He turned around, looking at whoever just called out to him. Jean saw that at the door he came through earlier, a man with black hair that was long enough to be held by a hair tie, dressed in an expensive outfit, who seemed to be about 25 years old approached Marco. “I was wondering where you were. I have to ask you a few questions.” He was smiling, but his smile seemed fake, as if just bait to lure prey in.

Suddenly, Marco took to the stairs, not saying a word to the man who just entered. “Hmm?” The man continued after him, pushing Jean aside. “Is that really a way to treat your father’s assistant?”

Clearly this guy wasn’t the friendliest there was, and that he had no intention on leaving Marco alone. Jean went after him, grabbing his arm to stop him from going any further in his pursuit. “Hey, he doesn’t want to talk to you! Just leave him alone!!”

The man gave him a half-amused glance. “Oh? And who are you to tell me not to? From what I can tell, you’re just a peasant.”

Jean gritted his teeth, now feeling annoyed by this guy. He was about to snap back at him when he heard a voice from behind. “What are you doing?” It was the other unknown voice from earlier, the deep one. Jean looked and saw a blonde male, very muscular and a bit older than Jean, approaching the black haired man.

“I simply want to talk to Marco.”

“And he’s already made it clear, he wants you to leave him alone,” The muscular boy said crossing his arms.

The black haired man chuckled. “Well, he was capable of talking to the peasant, I think he can handle talking to me.”

“Okay first of all,” Jean interrupted, “The only reason why he was talking to me in the first place was because that bunny of his fell on me!”

The older male sneered at Jean. “That candy named rodent of his?” He looked back at the bigger blond. “I’ve suggested before that you cook that thing before it falls on anyone else before, didn’t I Reiner?”

“And you wonder why Marco doesn’t want to interact with you,” The boy, who’s name was apparently Reiner, muttered as he glared back.

Waving his hand, the adult turned around before continuing after Marco. “Ha ha ha, always the amuser.” As he was halfway up the stairs, he started calling out for Marco again. “Marco, don’t be unreasonable. Marco?” When he disappeared from Jean’s sight, he started to sound more impatient. “Either you quit playing games with me, or that rodent of yours will be our dinner.”

Jean looked at the blond boy, who sighed. “If you wanna hit him, do it when he’s drunk. He won’t be able to figure out who did it then.”

“Sounds like you’re not the only one who dislikes that guy. Mr. Smile-for-a-lure.”

Reiner chuckled a bit, “Mr. Smile-for-a-lure, that’s a good one. His actual name is Adrian Dalca. And no, I’m not. Actually, the only ones who I think have any positive view on him is Dr. Bodt, and his other assistant Annabelle, and even they have their limits… finding some way to get back at him is more or less a pass time when he’s here…”

There was a sudden sound of a door slamming shut, from the next floor of the library. “Marco, I mean it!! You better come out wherever you are!!” Adrian sounded pretty pissed of now, and for them to be able to hear them from the floor above… if that didn’t say “mad”,  Jean wouldn’t know what would.

Reiner, looked at him. “The rabbit you mentioned, it is with Marco, right?”

“Uh, actually…” Jean pointed to the bookcase. “It’s hiding right below that.”

Reiner stared at him. “Please tell me that’s a joke.”

“… Do you prefer the truth or the lie?”

Reiner groaned. “Alright, I’ll fish her out…” As he was getting something out of his pocket, Jean heard someone running towards the library.

Looking over at the door, Jean saw that it was the blonde girl. “I heard Adrian. I’m guessing he found Marco and then lost him?”

“Yeah. But it’s the rabbit we should be worried about.”

She sighed. “Which one?” Jean blinked hearing that, feeling his heart sink to his stomach.

_There's more than one?_

Reiner stayed quiet for a moment. “… Just a sec.” he turned back to Jean. “Which one was it?”

“The white one-” He was cut off by a sudden crash from the next floor. “Agh!!” Adrian again, but the voice sounded far away. “Dumb rodent!!” There was another crash following that.

The three people in the library stood in silence that was ended by Reiner. “… Okay, make that two bunnies…”

“We better start looking for it, or Adrian might actually cook it.” She headed to the door. “I’ll get Bertholdt. Come on.” She looked at Jean. “You.”

He stood straight up when called out. “Y-yes?”

“Get the white one. Then take it somewhere where that dickhead won’t be looking.”

“Uh, look, as much as I am grateful to being let in from the storm, I have to say no. I don’t like rabbits… not to the point where I would kill and eat them, but I just really don’t like them.”

She stared at him blankly for a while. “Do this, and I’ll give you some money.”

Jean didn’t answer. That was very tempting. But he hated rabbits… He weighed his options, and gave in. “Fine.”

Reiner approached him and handed him a small bag. “Here, the white rabbit, Marshmallow, it loves mint.” He turned to Annie and followed her out of the library, just before heading back to Jean, grabbing something that was on a chair. “This might also help.” Then he left. Jean looked at what Reiner handed him, and saw that it was a blanket.

_Good, I don’t have to hold it directly._

Jean turned to the bookcase, taking a deep breath. “Okay, you got this.” He opened the bag and pulled out several mint leaves. Slowly, he kneeled down and saw the white fur ball next to the wall. Jean set a mint leaf down, followed by a few more, making a trail that lead out to the open space. “C’mon. Let’s get this over with,” Jean said as tucked the bag of mint in his pocket and went back to the case to check if the rabbit was taking the bait. The bunny looked at Jean with red eyes, Jean staring back. It slowly hopped towards his direction, and started nibbling at the first leaf. Followed by the next, and the next, and the next. Finally, it was completely back out from under the case, continuing after the mint leaves.

“Great.” Jean then put the blanket around the bunny before lifting it, holding it away from his face. “I am not snuggling you.” He watched the rabbit’s nose go up and down as it breathed. “… I’m taking you to Jaeger. He doesn’t mind rabbits.”

-

“Geeze, what a prick,” Eren muttered as he leaned back into the tub, still pretty pissed off at Jean. Why did he have to share this assignment with him? And as far as Eren was concerned, they still could have used the carriage if Jean took place of the horse. Groaning, he forced himself back up from the tub. Putting on the new clothes, he opened the door a bit to see if Jean was there. Nope. Leaving the bathroom, he spotted some food left on a table with a small note, which he picked up to read.

_Jaeger, I’m going to be looking around for a bit. Hope your soup doesn’t get too cold. Sorry about the sister comment. Jean_

Eren looked at before folding it. Jean was a bastard, definitely a narcissist as well, but he was not the worst kind of person… He was probably a childhood frenemy, if Eren had to describe their relationship. He pulled the chair so he could sit down and start eating. The soup was lukewarm, so that was good. Eren was halfway done when he heard the bedroom door open slowly, making him look up, half expecting Jean to be there. Instead, there was no body. “What?” Curious, he stood up and went to look outside, if anyone was pulling some kind of joke… no one was within sight.

_What the hell?_

Eren closed the door, confused. He then heard something clatter behind him, from the table. Turning around, he saw something he did not expect at all. A brownish-black bunny was sitting on the table, nibbling on the salad, and had accidentally knocked over a few utensils that were next to the plate. “… Oh, so that must have been you opening the door.” Eren came closer and looked at the small thing as it was chewing some lettuce. Amused, Eren grabbed a carrot slice that was in the salad and waited for the rabbit to finish the lettuce before holding it out. The rabbit turned to him and saw the offering, taking a few hops towards him and starting eating the slice. Eren let go of the carrot and watched as the bunny eliminated it.

“You have an owner, right? Where are they?” Eren held out an apple slice for it as he questioned it. The bunny merely nibbled at the piece of fruit, then started rubbing its eyes with its paws. Eren couldn’t help but smile at it. He used to want one when he was smaller, but it turned out his father was allergic to rabbits. As the rabbit continued eating, Eren reached to touch its fur. When he made contact, it froze completely. After a while it resumed eating the apple.

Just then, the bedroom door opened and Jean walked in… Much to Eren’s surprise, Jean was holding a white rabbit in a blanket. Jean saw the rabbit that was on the table, and froze right there. He turned back to Eren, speechless. “… Please tell me that there isn’t a third rabbit.”

“Not that I know.” He watched as Jean went over to the table and set the blanket into the second chair there. The white rabbit immediately hopped up to the tabletop and joined the darker one for lunch. “Why are you of all people holding it?”

“Apparently, there’s someone here who wants to eat them, and the only other people who could have gotten it from where it was hiding had to go look for another one.” Jean looked back at the rabbits in disgust. What a loser. “Oh and I’m gonna get paid for this.”

“… Really?”

“What?”

“You did it for money instead of keeping the rabbit safe.”

“Yeah, so?”

Eren sighed. There was no way he was going to talk sense into Jean. “Forget it…” Just then he heard running in the hallway.

“No Cinnamon, come here!!” Jean’s face showed some recognition towards the voice as it went by the room. The footsteps went further away from the room before stopping. The person was then walking back in the direction he came from. “Come on, we need to find… Ah! No!!” Just then, a brown blur ran into the room, only to stop when it collided with the wall. Eren looked in horror, before going over to check on it. Another rabbit.

He heard Jean whine. “No… no more rabbits, please…”

Ignoring horse face, Eren picked the rabbit up and checked to see if it was okay. Must have been, since it was looking at Eren and breathing just fine… as well as giving him a glaring–like look, which was hard to take seriously since it was a bunny. Eren then heard someone running to the room and stopping at the door. He turned and saw a boy a little older than him with dark hair and freckles, catching his breath. The freckled boy noticed Jean. “… Oh, sorry for bothering you again….”

“It’s not you, don’t apologize,” Jean said and pointed to the rabbits that were eating. “I got the rabbit out from under the bookcase after you left. The other one was already here when I walked in… and I guess that one is yours as well?” He pointed to the one Eren was holding.

“Oh! Thank you so much! You didn’t have to though!!”

“Better than letting them being turn into stew…”

The boy shyly smiled and went over to the table. “Hey, quit eating that, it isn’t yours!” He then picked both of the fluff balls up, cradling them as they were still chewing on something. He then turned to Eren, noticing the rabbit’s glare. “What happened?”

“He ran his head into the wall?”

Marco looked at the rabbit and pouted at it. “I thought I finally got her to stop doing that kind of stuff.” He then was reaching for it when Eren heard someone calling from down the hall.

“Marco? Where are you? I know you have that rabbit with you!!”

The boy visibly flinched at the voice, turning back to the door. That probably suggested he was the one being called out to. The brown bunny that Eren was holding jumped down and ran for the door, which Jean managed to close, and the rabbit ended up hitting its head. It fell back before getting back up and ran back at the door, continuing to hit its head. “No, cut that out,” ‘Marco’ said as he went to pick the third bunny up.

“Come out this instant Marco!”

The boy looked at Eren and Jean, panicked. “Uh, I don’t want to bother either of you, but if I could hide here…”

“No problem,” Jean said and opened the bathroom door, which Marco rushed into as the voice drew closer. Jean closed the bathroom door when the boy was in with all three bunnies, despite the light brown one’s attempt at escape.

After a few seconds, someone walked into the room. “Oh. The peasants.”

Eren turned to face whoever said that. An adult, who seemed to be in a noble man in his mid twenties, with long black hair, had entered the room. He was looking Jean with a cold smirk. “I see that you are being allowed to stay.”

“Yes, is there a problem with that?” Jean said in a dry tone.

The man let out a dark chuckle. “As long as you stay out of my way when trying to talk to Marco, no. There isn’t.” He then headed to the bathroom door. He looked at it before flinging the door open. Jean and Eren, both behind the man when he opened the door, visibly flinched. Eren watched as the man looked around the bathroom a bit before leaving. “Hmm, seems he’s not here…” With that, the man walked out and closed the door behind him. Eren listened as several other doors were being opened.

He then looked into the bathroom. No sign of either Marco or the rabbits. “Where… they were…” Jean walked in right behind Eren. “You saw Marco come in here, right?”

“Yep, all three bunnies in his arms too.”

“… Then where did he-” There was the sudden noise to the side, making both of them look. They saw Marco climbing out of the wall, all three bunnies in his arm, and closing a hidden door. “… Oh… didn’t see that when I was taking a bath.”

Marco looked at them. “Uh, thanks for helping me out… Um, both with these guys and hiding.”

“No problem,” Eren said. “That guy seemed like a real douche bag. I don’t think he should be allowed into the place”

Marco smiled nervously. “Uh… that isn’t possible… Adrian is one of my dad’s assistant…”

“… And your dad is…”

“Kas Bodt,” Jean answered.

Eren stared at horse face, then at Marco. “… Okay, my dad goes on and on and on about Dr. Bodt, so it’s kinda nice to hear something new about him from someone other than my dad.” Eren’s dad was a medical examiner and a pediatrician, so Eren had listened to his father talking about Dr. Bodt’s studies and works multiple times.

“Oh… uh, my dad doesn’t talk about his private live much, so I doubt anyone else besides people who come by the house know I exists…” Marco looked away as he spoke, and the brown rabbit fell from his arms and ran to the wall where the hidden door was, hitting its head again. “Hey, one day you are really going to get hurt from doing that,” Marco said as he bent down to pick it back up. When he stood back up, there was a very loud clap of thunder again, and all three rabbits jumped up scared and fell into the tub, that was filled with the now cold bathwater. “Ah!” Marco grabbed a towel and set it on the floor, then started taking each bunny out and setting them down on the towel.

The rabbits looked a bit thinner than when they were dry. Their heads looked a little big for their bodies, and their legs looked thin and a little longer. If there was one way to sum it up, it was weird.  Eren then noticed that they were shivering. “Uh, do you want me to get a fire started so we can get them warm up?”

“Y-yeah, that be great,” Marco said as he took a smaller towel and started drying them off.

Eren grabbed Jean and pulled him over to the fireplace. “Help me get it started, and I’ll let you have 3/5ths of the tip.”

“… Fine. It’s kinda cold anyway.” Jean grabbed a few pieces of wood that were set to the side as Eren prepared the fire starter.  When everything was in place, Eren took a match and lit it before throwing it in, watching the fire grow.

Eren went back to the bathroom, and saw Marco putting all three bunnies into small towels. “Fireplace is ready.”

“Thanks.” Marco then picked up all three rabbits and carried them out, Eren following him. Jean scooted away from the bunnies as they were set in front of the fire. “Warm up, okay buddies?” The black bunny started to sneeze but eventually stopped, the other bunnies pressing against it in an effort to get warm and completely dry. He looked over at Jean, who was frowning. “Is something wrong?”

“Nah… I just…” Jean continued watching the rabbits with distain.

“He hates rabbits. He was attacked by some when he was a little kid.”

Jean’s head snapped to face Eren, and his face turned red. “Sh-shut up Jaeger!” He then looked back at Marco. “He was the one who wet his bed after hearing a ghost story in school!”

Eren gaped at Jean, not believing he said that out loud. “It was one time! At least I’m not afraid of something the size of a softball at age 16!”

“Say that when something with two inch long teeth bite you, with the possibility of spreading rabies, then chases you out of your own house!”

Eren was about to say something else when he felt something on his foot. Looking down, he saw the white rabbit leaning against his shoe and the towel that was on it had fallen off. Eren squatted down to check it out. He saw that the rabbit’s fur was much drier than before. He continued looking at it when he heard Jean scream. “What, what is it?!” He looked back to look at his frienemy.

The brown rabbit had pounced onto his face, and had made him lie down on the ground. Jean held his hands up in the air, trying to remain still as the bunny laid down on his face. The dark rabbit decided to join its friend by jumping onto the fallen boy as well, the chest specifically. Marco watched on, alarmed. “I’m sorry! I’ll get them off!”

“No,” Eren quickly said, “Leave them. I wanna see if he has allergies.” There was a small whine from Jean. Eren watched in amusement as the brown rabbit sniffed the blonde hair.

“Jaeger, I’m begging you, get them off me,” Jean whined, his mouth the only part of his face not covered by rabbit.

Eren thought it over. “Promise that neither one of us will unnecessarily tell embarrassing childhood stuff.”

“Sure, yeah, just get these things off me!”

Shaking his head, Eren pulled the brown rabbit off Jean’s face and set it to the side, not paying attention to where it went. When he was getting the dark bunny off, he felt something jump onto the back of his neck. “Ah, careful!” Marco kneeled down to the other two boys. “I’ll get Cinnamon off you!” True to his words, Eren felt the weight on his neck disappear. Eren was holding the dark rabbit, which Marco took. “I’m sorry for causing so much trouble.”

“It’s the rabbits who should be saying that,” Jean muttered.

Marco let out a small laugh. “Even if they could talk, they wouldn’t realize that they would be causing trouble.” The white rabbit hopped towards Marco before jumping up to join the other two. When all three of them were in Marco’s arms, they started nuzzling his face. “Pfft, guys cut it out!!” He continued laughing as the bunnies were snuggling against him, and he ended up on the floor completely. Eren watched as the freckled boy giggled.

There were footsteps starting to come down the hall, and Marco stopped laughing. All three boys remained quiet as the footsteps came closer. “Marco, I’m positive I heard you~” It was that man again, Adrian. “Where have you been hiding?” Eren and Jean looked at Marco, who got up to hide in the bathroom again. Just before he was in, Marco stopped when there was the sound of the doorknob starting to turn, slowly, as if to torment him. “You’re in here, aren’t you?” Marco turned to the door, fear in his eyes.

Just when the doorknob finished turning, someone else came to the room. “Adrian, what are you doing?” Sounded like a woman, but it wasn’t the maid who let Eren and Jean in.

“Ah, Annabelle, what is it? I need to-”

“Help me back in the basement. Unless you have any interest in Dr. Bodt to fire you.”

There was an intense moment of silence, which ended when Adrian released the doorknob. “… Fine.” One set of footsteps started walking away from the room, eventually followed by another set of footsteps.

When the footsteps faded, Marco slumped down against the bathroom door sighing. “Why did it have to be stormy today?”

Jean, who had his attention at the bedroom door, turn to face Marco. “Hah? What does that have to do with anything? Don’t wanna invade privacy or anything, but I’m bored, so why not kill time talking?” Marco looked over to him, clearly hesitating.

“Look,” Eren started, actually supporting Jean for once, “It might help to say it out loud, even just a little bit. My dad has to work with psychiatrists, so I’ve heard that talking about problems to someone unfamiliar with the scenario can help… But only if you want to…”

Marco looked surprised, but then smiled. “You two are actually pretty sweet… despite your appearances.”

Both boys blinked in confusion and asked in unison, “Eh?”

“It’s the scowls… but they remind me a bit of Cinnamon,” Marco explained while using a finger to point to the brown frowning bunny.

“Please don’t compare me to rabbits,” Jean begged.

Marco shook his head, then his smile slipped away. “… Adrian usually isn’t outside. He hates the outdoors… I like being outside, plus it gives my rabbits some freedom to run around… he’s usually working in the basement with Annabelle, my dad’s other assistant. But… when it started to rain, I had to come inside, and…”

“He’s basically stalking you,” Jean said.

“… I’m not sure if I would call it that. He usually focuses on women. He’s only been paying attention to me for the last month, and he’s been here much longer than that…” Marco’s voice dropped as he continued talking. “I dunno why he…” Marco’s head fell, and all three bunnies, still in his arms, reached up to touch the top of his head, as if to comfort him.

“… Guess that they’ve been with you for a long time?”

“Huh?” Marco looked back up at Eren.

“Your rabbits.”

Marco smiled again. “Y-yeah, I’ve had all three for five years.”

Eren looked back at the rabbits, examining their sizes. “They’re kinda… small.”

“Yeah, they are. Makes it easier to hide… but harder to find.”

“Easier for them to assassinate people,” Jean muttered. The brown bunny turned its head to face Jean, still frowning. Jean flinched and scooted back some more.

Marco peeked over to face the frowning bunny. “Hey, you be nice to him. He saved us.”

Jean looked at Marco, a serious look on your face. “… Are there any more?”

“Nope, just these three.”

“… So they’re all the same gender.”

“Uh… no. Cinnamon and Marshmallows are girls, and Chocolate is a guy.”

Hearing that, Jean’s face took on a face of pure terror. “Liar.”

“Huh?”

“They are rabbits, master breeding-baby makers! There is no way that they could spend so much time together and NOT make babies!” He then looked around the room wildly. “They’re in the walls, those rabbit babies!”

“Kits.”

“WHA?!”

“The term for baby rabbits is kits,” Marco said ‘matter of fact’ly. “And I know they have never had babies because Papá examines both Marshmallow and Cinnamon three times every month. And of all those times, neither one of them turned out pregnant…”

“… You sure?”

“Yes.” Jean let out a sigh of relief. Eren saw Marco smile mischieviously. “Although I really wouldn’t mind having some more.”

Jean backed away as much as he could. “DON’T SAY THAT KIND OF STUFF DAMMIT!!” Eren snickered a bit, earning a glare from Jean. “And you, don’t laugh.”

“Fine.”

Steadily, Marco stood up and went over to the bedroom door and peeked out a bit. He then looked at his bunnies, “Okay, we’re good guys. Adrian’s gone. We can head back to the library.” He was about to go when he turned back to Eren and Jean. “Uh, thanks for letting me hide here.”

Eren shrugged, “No problem.”

“… Um… are you two staying for the night?”

“Unless this storm lets up two hours before sundown, yeah,” Jean said as he stood back up, still shaken by the bunnies.

Marco smiled. “Uh, is there anything in particular you would like to have for dinner then? Consider it my thanks.”

Both boys looked at each other, then back at Marco. “We’ll think over it.”

“Alright, I’ll be in the library if you guys want to take up the offer! But has to be before 5, because that’s when the chef starts getting the food ready.” He then walked down the hallway in the directions of the stairs.

“… Nice guy,” Eren commented after a moment.

“Hnn. Yeah, I guess… better than that other guy who barged in here.”

“Yep…” Eren then blinked in confusion. “Wait, are you actually agreeing with me?”

“… Shut up.” Jean then looked around the room. “… So are we sharing the same bedroom, or what? If we are, take the floor, cuz we are not sharing a bed.”

“Why do I have to take the floor?!”

“Cuz you’re gonna wet the bed,” Jean said smirking.

“Just get your own room! I already used the bathtub here!! … And I’m sure this room is filled with rabbit hair now.”

Jean’s smirk fell. “Good point.” He then grabbed his stuff. “I’ll be in the room across the hall.” With that, he was almost out of the room, but stopped. “Do you have any preferences for dinner, cuz I could always go and tell Freckles myself.”

“No, we’ll go together. Don’t need you asking for something ridiculously spicy behind my back and know I won’t be eating it.”

Jean let out a laugh. “Fine.” He then went to the room right across Eren’s and closed the door.

Eren went back to the fire place and set his still wet clothes in front of it. Looking over at the clock in the room, he saw that it was 3:25. Figuring that he could take a few minutes to sleep on the freckled boy’s offer, he plopped onto the bed, and stared at the ceiling.

“… Marco Bodt… he seemed pretty nice for a rich kid... still surprised this is the first time I heard about Dr. Bodt having kids.”

Figuring that there wasn't much to it, Eren flopped over to his side and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Jean is afraid of bunnies in this fic XD  
> http://sciatha.tumblr.com/post/92547892302/jeanmarco-bunny-au


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally updated!! Sorry about the wait, this chapter ended up being longer than expected! And i've been busy with both school and my other fic. I also started playing the actual game, or more accurately, started with some problems with the program since I have a Mac and Mad Father is a Windows game DX I eventually fixed it, but now i keep getting killed by the corpses in the game since I don't have a good reaction time XD
> 
> Just a quick note from before: I have made a few changes to the previous chapters, stating what Marco's big secret was, which is the fact he's epileptic. I'll explain why he has epilepsy in future chapters. Oh, and I changed the mansion's floor count from 7 floors plus attic and basement to just 4 plus attic and basement, since I was trying to find references to actual mansions with over 5 floors, but wasn't having any luck DX

Eren was half asleep when he heard a low, groaning noise. “Shjean, if shats you, cut it out…” When he got no response, Eren opened his eyes and looked around. No Jean, but the sound stopped. Must have been the storm, or a really loud gust of wind. Sitting up, he buried his face in his hands, feeling completely slammed.

“Nnnggg… Uh?” Eren felt something wet on the side of his face. Pulling his hands away, he realized what it was. Drool. He looked at his pillow and saw a small puddle of drool that had collected there. “Eww!” He immediately jumped off the bed and grabbed the towel he used earlier and wiped his face. “Gross~” Making sure to clean up as much drool as possible, both from his face and the pillow, Eren put it in the bathroom, along with the towels that were used earlier.

When he closed the bathroom door, he looked at the clock, which read 3:55. He remembered about Marco’s offer earlier about dinner. “… I better make sure Jean didn’t go tell him to fix spicy food.” He went to the room across the hall and knocked on the door.

“Just a sec!” Good. Jean was still here. The door opened and Jean stood there. “Woah, what happened to you? You look like you were shoved off a cliff.”

“I took a nap.” Eren stretched a bit. “You thought about what you wanted to eat? Don’t say spicy stuff.”

“… I’m kinda in the mood for starches, but I was actually thinking of asking either that expensive stuff I never get to buy or for stuff I never heard of. Y’know, this is a once in a life time thing, so might as well take advantage of it.”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if you end up gaining a few pounds while we’re here. You’ll become the fat kid again.”

“Better than the scrawny one who only eats sweets.”

Eren growled at that comment. Both of them had very different eating habits when they were younger. Jean was a foodsie, not to the extent Sasha was though, while Eren was a picky eater. A very pick eater. The only foods Eren wouldn’t think twice about eating were sweet things, which gave him some fat, but not much. Whenever their families ate together, Jean ate whatever Eren didn’t. Both of them grew, more or less, out of their childish food habits… Sort of. Eren still had a sweet tooth and Jean would stuff himself when he had the chance.

“Which way is the library?”

“Down this way.” Jean lead Eren to the entrance on the current floor.

When Eren walked in, he took a moment to walk around and take a look. “Wow, this place is huge.” After a minute he heard Jean scream. Eren turned around and saw that Jean had climbed a chair.

“Get it, get it Jaeger!! It went after my pants!!” He pointed to the floor, refusing to come down. Eren looked down and saw the brown frowning bunny, Cinnamon, glaring at Jean.

“Alright, gimme a sec,” Eren said with disbelief as he walked over and picked the rabbit up. Curious to see what would happen, Eren held her so that she was belly up. Cinnamon curled up and stared right back at Eren.

Jean swerved his head around, looking at the floor. “Do you see the others anywhere?”

“Nah, just this one,” Eren said as he looked around as well.

“You swear?”

Eren sighed. “Yes, I swear.” Just then, Cinnamon rotated in Eren’s arms and jumped down, before hopping over to a staircase next to the walls. Eren watched as it started hopping up each step. “I think Marco might be up there.”

Jean slowly climbed down from the chair. “He was up there earlier, so probably.”

“Okay then, follow the rabbit.”

“I don’t want to follow a rabbit.”

“Well, we’re going in the same direction.” Eren went after the rabbit, Jean – reluctantly – right behind him. The rabbit was halfway up when Eren caught up and picker her up. “I’ll save you the trip,” Eren told her as he put her on her back again. When he finally reached the top, he set her down and watched her hop away. Eren kept her eyes on her and saw Cinnamon approach an armchair between two bookcases, and had several books next to it as well as someone in it.

_Is that Marco?_

Eren approached the armchair, and looked at the persons face. He saw that it was Marco, but he was asleep, with Chocolate sitting in his lap on top of an open book.

He then heard a muffled yelp from behind. Sighing, Eren turned around to see what happened now. He saw that Jean stood frozen in place, with the white bunny on his face, covering his mouth and keeping him quiet. Eren tried not to laugh out loud. He then heard a groan from the chair, and looked back at Marco. He was moving, probably waking up.

“Mmm, wha?” Marco opened his eyes and blinked a few times, rubbing them. He then noticed Eren. “Oh! Hi!” He picked up Chocolate from his lap and set him down before grabbing his book and stood up in a hurry, looking a little embarrassed. He then looked past Eren and saw Jean with Marshmallow. “AH!” He set his book down again and went over to Jean again. “I’m sorry! I’ll get her off!!” He plucked her of Jean’s face. Jean stood still for a while longer before letting out a whine.

“Too many rabbits…”

“Uh, sorry Mister…” Marco paused for a moment, adjusting the rabbit in his arms, “I’m sorry, could both of you give me your names? I don’t know them, and I would prefer to address you with actual names…”

Jean didn’t respond for a moment, not fully out of the daze yet. “Hah?”

Eren rolled his eyes. “Horse face there is Jean. I’m Eren.”

That snapped Jean out of it. “HEY!!”

“No Jean, there isn’t any hay here.”

Jean growled at the horse-joke, which were not uncommon back at the work place or at home.  He was about to say something else when the brown rabbit came charging at him. “GAAH!!” He broke into a run and climbed a chair that was unoccupied. Cinnamon stopped when she noticed and slid down a few feet. When she stopped completely, she hopped over to the chair where Jean was on and glared.

“Hey, Cinnamon,” Marco scolded as he ran over to pick her up and put her with Marshmallow, “Quit bullying him. He was nice enough to let us hide earlier.” He then looked back at Jean. “I’m sorry, she always acts like this whenever new people come.” As Marco was about to pick her up, she started running straight at Eren. Finally reaching him, she bit his shoelace and started to gnaw on it. “Ah!! Bad girl!!” Marco ran over to Eren and tried to take Cinnamon away, but as he was pulling her away, she was taking the shoelace with her. Sighing and setting the white rabbit down, Marco reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag from his pocket. He pulled out a few cranberries and showed them to Cinnamon. “C’mon, come here.” Suddenly, she lost all interest in Eren and his shoelace, proceeding instead to eat the fruit presented to her, and stopped frowning.

“I see that they can be bribed,” Jean commented from his chair as he carefully stepped down as Eren was fixing his shoelace.

_Look who’s talking._

Marco chuckled shyly as he picked both Marshmallow and Cinnamon up, and went over to where Chocolate was sitting down at, picking him up as well. “Uh, yeah…” Adjusting all three in his arms, he looked at both Jean and Eren. “I guess you two made up your mind about the offer?”

Jean nodded. “Sort of. I was wondering what kind of stuff was available… as in, not-the-average-grocery-store stuff.”

“Oh, I can show you around the kitchen so you can check out what we have, if you want…I’m sure the chef wouldn’t mind.”

Hearing that, Jean’s face lit up. “Really?”

_Yeesh, what a glutton._

“Yeah, shouldn’t be a problem.” Marco then turned to Eren. “Do you want to come as well?”

“Uh… Sure. Don’t think it’ll kill me…”

Marco flashed a smile. “Okay, if you both would just follow me, I’ll show you where we keep the food.” He headed to the stairs while holding his rabbits, Jean in tow, followed by Eren.

-

Marco glanced behind him as he led Eren and Jean down the stairs, a little embarrassed that they found him asleep from his medicine just now. It has been a while since he’s seen anyone new around the house and actually interacted with, and they were interesting. They bickered constantly with each other and were a tad grumpy, but they were nice. Much nicer than how Adrian had been acting lately. Marco was still grateful for Annabelle getting him to go back to the basement.

The basement was where Papá would perform experiments for untested or understudied treatments. Marco had never been allowed to go there. Only Papá, his assistance, Bertholdt, Annie, and Reiner went down there, and the last three hardly did so unless Papá told them to. He wasn’t sure what Papá did there, but he wasn’t particularly bothered by that. All Papá wanted to do was help people. That’s why he became a doctor.

Finally reaching the ground floor, Marco pointed to the left. “Kitchen’s this way.” Both boys continued following him led them down the hallway.

Eventually, Marco approached the door that led to the kitchen and storage room. Opening it, he saw Bertholdt carrying a few bags. “Hi Bertholdt.” Marco approached the taller boy who turned to face him.

“Oh, Marco! There you are! Are you okay? Uh, I heard Adrian found you earlier…”

“Ah, yeah, barely managed to get out of that…”

Bertholdt nodded. “I’m glad.” He then noticed Jean and Eren. “Oh, I see that you both are looking around?”

Eren scratched his head. “Uh, sort of…”

“Uh, actually, I was going to show them the stuff we have so they can have a say in dinner,” Marco quickly explained. “Lidia will be okay with that, right?” Lidia was the chief who was married, but her husband stayed in the city that was a few miles away. She worked every other week before taking her leave, usually after cooking a huge amount of food for everyone to survive on while she was gone. She usually babied Marco, saying he reminded her of her own children, and was also aware of his seizures.

Bertholdt bit his lip, “Just as long as they don’t move ingredients and stuff around to any place out of the ordinary spots, I guess so…”

Marco nodded, knowing that Bertholdt had often witnessed Lidia’s fits when someone moved something out of its general area, usually whenever she can’t find what she’s looking for. Usually Reiner’s fault. Reiner tended to lean towards the scatterbrain category when it came to remembering to put something back where he found it. He turned back to Eren and Jean and motioned them to follow him further down the passage. “Just a bit further down, and the storage room will be at the right.”

When they finally arrived, Marco opened the door and let Jean in, Eren following. Just before he went in, he felt someone tap his shoulder. Looking back, he saw Bertholdt standing behind him. “Uh, I can take care of your bunnies for you while you’re in there. I’ll give them some food to hold them off.”

“Oh, thanks!” Marco quickly handed Bertholdt all three rabbits, glad that all of them were relatively calm around the taller boy. Watching Bertholdt leave, Marco headed back into the storage room. “Hey, sorry about that, I was just…” He saw Jean standing in the room, staring at the multiple shelves lined with different foods, as well as the different bags hung from the ceiling. Eren was looking at Jean, with an unamused look. “Uh, are you two okay?”

Jean turned to face him, amazement on his face. “ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.” He then waved his arms around. “I-I-I can’t believe all this stuff, I–I mean!” Jean ran his hands through his blonde hair. “This is, like, over a thousand times bigger than what I have back home!! We can just pick out what we’re interested and bring it to the chef, right?”

“Uh, yeah, just put it in the crate next to the door and we can take it to Lidia.” Marco pointed to a medium sized crate next to the door that already had a few things in it.

He heard Jean squeal in excitement as he ran over to check out some of the ingredients that were sitting on the third shelf up on the right wall. He peeked into a bag sitting idly there, excitement filling his face as he turned back. “Holy shit, are these truffles?!”

Marco tilted his head, taken back a bit by the language. “Uh, I’m not sure?”

Jean looked back into the bag before closing it and grabbing the bag, heading over to the crate Marco mentioned earlier. “This is a must.”

Eren watched as Jean ran back to the shelves. “Your gonna gain a few pounds by tomorrow, you know.”

“Even if I do, I won’t regret it one bit,” Jean said as he continued searching the shelves. He then froze. “Wait, do you think Sasha will find out about this?”

Eren didn’t answer for a while, making Marco curious. “Uhh… she found out about the cupcake you sneaked in a while back, even after you ate it. So, I definitely think it’s possible.”

Marco watched as Jean bit his lower lip. “Hmm, that’s right. I remember her chewing me out on not sharing.”

“Uh,” Marco hesitantly interrupted. “I don’t want to bug either one of you, but can I ask who Sasha is?”

“A friend of ours who is a bigger glutton than Jean and your rabbits combined… and has serious issues about friends at special food events without her,” Eren answered, scratching his head. “And a great sense of smell.”

Marco nodded. “Uh, well I think you guys can take some food back with you, if you want. Both for your Sasha friend and whoever else you want.” Both boys looked at him with surprise. Marco started to worry, feeling that he said something wrong. “Uh, well it’s up to you.”

Jean was the first to speak. “Do you go to Catholic school or something? Cuz you are freakishly nice, especially for a rich kid.”

Marco didn’t answer immediately, not sure if he should be offended by either the ‘freakishly nice’ or ‘rich kid’ descriptions. “Uh, no. I’m home schooled.” It was true. He started learning kindergarten stuff when he was living with his grandparents, and when he came back to live with Papá, he ended up having being taught by some of the servants. It was easier, given his seizures.

“Well, glad to see that you weren’t spoiled rotten in the process,” Jean commented as he looked at Marco before Eren walked over and smacked the back of Jean’s head. “Ow!”

Eren looked over to Marco. “Sorry about him.”

Marco shook his head. “No, he’s right. I definitely could have turned out that way…” He did get pampered a lot by Papá, before he left and after he came back, but Papá was usually so busy that Marco didn’t want to give him any problems, so he tried not to ask for too many things. And when he was with his grandparents, they didn’t have as much as Papá, so there was no way to actually spoil him.

Jean returned his attention to the shelves. “I’ll be sure to take the offer up. Could spare me some cash.” Reading the labels on some of the boxes, he took one off the shelf and turned to Marco. “Hey, does the chef do Italian?”

“Yeah, Lidia can cook a fair amount. Why, you have an idea of what you want?”

“Yeah, I was kinda thinking towards something starchy, so I guess a risotto is what I’m kinda interested in? Possibly with the truffles?” He placed the box into the crate before heading back to the shelves.

“Sure, she makes great risottos! Oh, but you better tell her that there’s something else besides risotto you would like. She prefers to serve balanced meals. And…” He stopped talking when he heard the door behind him opening.

“Master Marco, what are you doing?” Lidia.

Marco turned around and saw her standing at the door. “Lidia! Hi! Uh… I was just showing the guests what we had… because I promised they could have a say in what’s fixed for dinner…” He bit his lower lip, hoping that he wouldn’t get her upset.

Lidia stayed quiet, then a big smile broke across her face. “I knew it!” She then pinched his cheeks. “How on earth did I get lucky enough to work for a family with one of the sweetest boys in existence?” She released his face, which was now sore from the pinching, and went over to Jean and Eren. “Mmm, so you’re the delivery boys that everyone’s been talking about?” Before either boy could respond, she grabbed one of Eren’s cheeks and tugged it, showing a small amount of fat, smaller than what Marco had. “Goodness, child, why you so skinny?” She turned to Jean, still holding Eren’s cheek. “What does this boy eat?”

“Sweet things only,” Jean answered, trying to take a few steps back, watching Eren struggling to get away.

“Doesn’t he get cold?” She turned back to Eren. “I’ll see that you eat properly tonight, and that you get breakfast tomorrow!” Releasing Eren, she looked over to Jean and smiled, grabbing his cheek and pulling it, showing that Jean had more to hold on his face. “Clearly you eat well, a plump boy like you.”

Jean let out a strained chuckle. “Yeah…”

Still smiling, Lidia let go of his cheek. “So, what can I fix you boys?”

Jean massaged his cheek that was turning red before answering. “Uh, I was already thinking a risotto with some truffles? I already put the truffles in the crate, if that helps.”

She patted his shoulders. “Ah, a young man with taste and seizes opportunities! Wish my husband be like that! Too bad he wouldn’t come out here with me for work. Prefers working in the city instead.” She shook his head, “Bah, sometimes I worry about him.” She looked back at Jean. “I’ll fix the risotto, but I won’t let that be the only thing you boys eat!!” She looked over at Eren. “You are going to have proteins and fat, and be full by tonight! Maybe even add a few pounds to that skinny frame of yours!”

Marco heard Eren let out a small groan, almost making him laugh. “Look,” Eren started, “I appreciate your concern-”

“No need to thank! Just let me do my job!” She then grabbed Eren’s arms, and as well as Jean’s, pulling them to the door. “Now, I intend to surprise you boys,” She said and pushed Marco out with the other two boys, “So go play while I get dinner ready, okay? Should take at least an hour and half, so I’ll get starting!” With that, she pushed them to the side of the door before closing it, humming.

All three boys stood there, looking back at the door. “I wanted to look a bit more,” Jean whined.

“Glutton,” Eren said.

“… At least I’m not the guy who a middle age woman intends to stuff.”

“Shut up.”

Marco waited a bit before talking to the boys again. “Uh, I can show you both around some more while we wait, will that be okay?” He hoped that they would say yes.

Eren shrugged. “Sure.”

He glanced over to Jean, who gave a small grunt. “Eh, don't have anything else in mind.”

Marco smiled at them, feeling glad that they were okay with going with him. “Okay, I’m just going to check on my rabbits.” Jean grimaced that the mentioning of them. Marco didn’t want to be mean, but it was rather amusing to see someone afraid of something like little bunnies. “You two don’t have to come with me, I’ll just be down the hall. I’ll be back soon.” With that, Marco dashed down the hall, arriving to the actual kitchen. He saw Bertholdt squatting next to the three bunnies. “Hey.”

Bertholdt looked up. “Marco, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, Lidia just found us in the storage room. She didn’t get angry, but she’s planning on stuffing one of the guests later,” Marco said sheepishly. He looked at his rabbits, which were eating some food from the bowl they shared. “They didn’t give you trouble, did they?”

“Only when I was getting them food. Kept trying to eat straight out of the bag.”

Marco shook his head at the rabbits. “You guys are silly, you know that?” Looking at Bertholdt again, he quickly said, “I’m just going to show the guests around some more. Is there anyplace that’s not allowed?”

“Uh, fourth floor, for obvious reasons.” That floor had the private rooms for permanent residents, so of course. “Attic is also a no. I think any other place would be fine.” Bertholdt then added, “Except-”

“The basement? I know,” Marco quickly said. “See you at dinner!” He instantly stood up and was about to leave

“Wait.” Marco stopped moving and turned back to Bertholdt. “Have you taken your medicine yet?”

Marco thought for a moment. He didn’t have to take his medicine for the nightmares yet, he took that a week ago, and it was still working. So… Bertholdt must mean the other medicine. “… Do you mean the one for the seizures?” Bertholdt nodded. “Yeah, before 1.”

Bertholdt sighed in relief. “Okay, good. You can go now.”

Marco nodded before he ran back down the hall, reaching Eren and Jean. “I wasn’t gone too long, was I?”

“Nah,” Both boys replied in unison.

Marco flashed a smile to them. “Alright, so I guess I’ll give you two a tour of the place then!” Marco went towards the other end of the hall with Eren and Jean following him again. “I dunno if I’m allowed to show the locked rooms, but I’m sure it’ll be fine, as long as we don’t break anything,” Marco stated and looked back to them. He noticed that Jean was further back than before, looking away. “… Are you okay?”

Jean looked back at Marco. “Oh, y-yeah. Just thought I saw something… probably just me though…”

-

Jean walked behind Eren as the followed Marco up the stairwell. He then heard something behind him… footsteps? He glanced behind him. Nothing. God, second time he heard something. First time was in the hallway next to the storage room. But that time, he could have sworn he saw the same figure when he entered the mansion. It was there for a split second before disappearing.

_Maybe I’m just hungrier than I thought I was. Well, I can wait till dinner._

Marco led them past the second floor and onto the third one. “Uh, so past the right of the library, we have two parlors. There are some board games in one of them, along with some toys and stuff. Uh, I dunno why we still have it, most of the stuff was what I used when I was younger…” He let out an embarrassed laugh. “I really should tell my father that there’s no need to keep that room the way it is…” Marco rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, we also have a music room, if either one of you two are interested?”

Jean could have sworn he saw Eren’s ears perk up at that. “Music room? Do you have instruments that we can play there?”

“We have a piano, and…” Eren dashed past Marco, surprising the freckled boy.

“… Jaeger likes music. ‘Specially singing and pianos,” Jean explained to him. Eren would go to multiple concerts back home, every year, usually either cheap ones or for free. For the last three years, he’s been getting jobs so he can buy his own tickets to concerts that cost a bit more than what his parents were willing to pay for, and they were already paying for music classes.

“Uh,” Both Marco and Jean looked over at Eren, who stood in the hall, dumbfounded. “Which way is the music room?”

Marco pointed the opposite direction of the one Eren went. “This way, to the left. I’ll show you”

Eren nodded, looking embarrassed. “Okay…” Marco turned left, Eren quickly catching up with him. Feeling as if he might as well check it out, Jean followed. He wasn’t really into music, but he was a bit bored. And it was better than being attacked by rabbits.

After passing several doors, Marco opened a door that had a small painting on the side that looked a bit old and done by a child. “Here it is… uh, ignore the crummy painting. Just another thing that I should talk to my dad about.” Ah. Childhood artistic exploration.

“You should see what me and Jaeger did to his dad’s work place when we were… how old were we again? Four?”

“If you are referring to when we made hand paintings on the walls, yeah.” Jean couldn’t help but grin at the memory. He had to go to Eren’s place for the day, and ended up being dragged with both him and Mikasa to Dr. Jaeger’s clinic. Jean had brought some paint with him to do something, but eventually, he ran out of papers to do pictures on. When he did, Jean noticed that the walls of Dr. Jaeger’s office were pure white. After talking Eren into it, the two boys ended up making a huge hand painting out of the walls. When they were caught, the walls were cleaned up, which took weeks. During which, both boys were grounded.

Marco, who pursed his lips together at hearing the teaser of the full story, moved so both boys could go in. Jean went in after Eren. The music room wasn’t anywhere near as big as the library, but was still large. There was a grand piano standing in the middle of the room, a harp to the side, as well as plush furniture. There was one set of windows, no light actually coming though due to the storm. Jean looked over at Eren, who was approaching the piano, fingers already moving. When he was right next to the piano chair, Eren pressed down on one of the keys, followed by a high pitched note. Jean noticed a sudden frown on Eren’s face, and watched Eren play some scales.

“Hey, it’s sounds good,” Marco said as he watched Eren play. “Do you take classes?”

Eren nodded. “Yeah. Do you know how old this piano is?”

“Uh, over ten years? I remember my mom playing it when I was… three? I’m not sure if that’s when she got it, or if she had it longer than that.”

“Has it ever been restored?”

“Mmm, not that I’m aware. Why?”

“Usually within the ten year span, the piano’s pitch would have dropped, and the keys would have become less responsive when touched. Then after the ten year span, some of the parts need to be replaced… this one sounds like it’s brand new though… Does your dad have a habit of switching out things for new replicas?”

Marco shook his head. “If anything, he hates replacing things with replicas…”

Eren played a few more notes before responding. “I’m guessing he must have someone making sure this thing is tuned constantly then, and that it’s not to humid in here… how often is this played?”

Marco scratched his cheek. “Not too much actually. I’m not good at music, and everyone else is usually too busy.”

Eren continued playing, starting to play a common practice piece that Jean was familiar with. “… What about your mom? You said she played.”

“Well… she did.”

Jean heard Eren reply with, “Huh… She loose interest in playing?”

Marco shook his head. “Uh, no… she’s dead.”

The music stopped just then, both Jean and Eren focusing on Marco. “… Dead?”

Marco gulped before responding. “Yeah, and it’s a little hard to play piano when you’re dead…” He sounded like he was trying to relieve the sudden tension in the room, but it didn’t really work, possibly making him more uncomfortable than before.

Jean looked over at Eren, and seized the pillow that he was poking a moment ago before throwing it at him. Eren noticed it, but was unable to shield himself from the pillow, which hit his face, resulting in a muffled yelp. It bounced off and Eren looked at Jean. “What the hell?!”

“Had to pry open the can, huh?”

“No, it’s fine,” Marco quickly said, “It happened a long time ago. I’ve accepted it.”

Jean didn’t respond, leaving Eren to ask, “You sure? I didn’t mean to…”

“Yeah, I’m sure…” Marco fidgeted for a moment before picking up the pillow Jean threw. “Uh, so how many songs do you know?

“Mmm, by heart, ten. There are a few more that I know the general rhythm for, but I don’t know the notes precisely.”

“That’s pretty neat,” Marco complimented, hugging the pillow close to him.

_Was this guy telling the truth about being homeschooled? He had to go to catholic school at one point!_

Marco leaned a bit closer. “Do you have a favorite song that you can play?”

Eren rubbed his neck. “Can’t play my absolute favorite, but I know one melody I like playing?”

Marco nodded, then asked in a timid voice, “Is it okay if I ask you to play it? I don’t want to be rude…”

Eren flexed his fingers. “If asking me if I could play a song is rude, I’d hate to know what spitting is.” Just before returning his fingers to the keys, he looked up at Marco. “Ready?” Marco nodded, and Eren started playing again. It was a sad sounding melody, but it was still beautiful.

_Oh, this song._

Jean recognized it from a small concert Eren performed in this past December, and had been working on several months before then. If he recalled correctly, then at the pace Eren was playing this song at right now would make the whole thing 5 minutes long, more or less. After a couple minutes, Jean was mostly focused on the music, seated on the couch. Eventually the song came to an end.

“That was really good!”

“Thanks. Took me five months to memorize it. Want to hear another one?”

“If that’s alright with you.”

“Okay then.” Eren shifted a bit in his seat and started playing another song. Jean continued listening, watching Jaeger as he moved his fingers along the piano keys. After a few minutes, he then felt the cushions shift a bit. He glanced to the side and saw a white rabbit. At first Jean didn’t really notice, turning back to watch Jaeger play. Then his brain clicked, and Jean looked back in horror and realized that it was Marshmallow next to him.

“GAH!!” he jumped off the couch and onto the floor. The music stopped, both Marco and Eren looking at Jean with confusion. Jean scooted a bit further, keeping his eyes on Marshmallow. To his horror, she jumped down and was hopping towards Jean. “No no no no no, bad bunny,” Jean said as he stood up. The rabbit still was coming closer to him, cornering him to the wall. Jean was now pressing his wall against the wall now. “No, no, no.” He looked over at Eren and Marco, the former watching with amusement as the latter watched with worry. “Help?”

“Yeah, sorry!” Marco quickly went over to the bunny before picking her up. “I thought you were busy eating.” The rabbit merely rubbed her face with her front paws, which Marco shook his head at.

Just then, the piano was making some more noise, but it was different from earlier. “Uh, Marco,” Eren started, “The other two are here.”

Marco went back to the piano, Jean going with him. Jean saw Chocolate and Cinnamon on the keys, hopping around on them. “You guys just find trouble when you aren’t outside,” Marco said as he picked the two off the piano, just before Cinnamon went onto the piano wires, since the lid was open.

“How did they get here?” Jean looked over at the door, which was open. The kitchen was about five minutes away for the boys, and if Jean had to guess, rabbits would take longer to get from there to here. Unless they ran. But then there was the stairs.

Marco looked over at one of the walls before noticing something. “Oh.” He went over to it and opened another hidden door, similar to what was in the bathroom, except it was slightly open already. Marco peered in, then back at his rabbits. “Reiner put you guys on here and brought you up, didn’t he?”

Eren, out of curiosity, went over and looked into the hidden space. “Is this a dumbwaiter?”

“Yeah, it’s connected to the kitchen.”

Jean, now curious as well, went over and peaked over Eren’s head. He saw a lift in the gap in the wall. He looked back at the rabbits, who were avoiding looking at the lift, playing innocent. “How old is this?”

“I think it was here when the place as first built… Never really given it much thought.”

“Are there anymore?” Jean took a step back from the hidden door.

“Dumbwaiters? Yeah, a few.”

“What about secret doors? We saw the one in the bathroom.”

“Oh, those? They’re all over the place. But some of them won’t open up. I think they were sealed up.”

Jean blinked. “Why would that happen?”

“Dunno. I think this place used to be a church or something, but whatever was being practice eventually died, and the place was abandoned…” Just then, there was another clap of thunder, scaring the rabbits. All three of them jumped out of Marco’s arms and ran under the couch.

Eren looked at the rabbit’s hiding spot. “… Better than a bathtub with cold water, right?”

Marco let out a strained laugh, “I guess…” He went over to the couch before kneeling down to check on his rabbits. “Hey, you guys okay?” Marco stayed there a bit longer before sitting up. “Mmm, poor guys. They never liked big sounds.”

Eren walked up to him. “Makes sense. Probably hurts their ears.” He bent down to look at the rabbits as well. “Wow, they do look freaked out. They look like they increased in size three times,” Eren muttered.

Curious, Jean slowly came over to the couch and kneeled down as well. All three rabbits were huddled together, their fur standing out on their ends, making them appear bigger. Even the fur on their ears. “Damn. They are scared.”

He continued looking at the rabbits while Eren looked over at Marco. “Do you want to lure them out with food?”

“I think they’re too scared to come out, even if I laid a whole buffet out for them. I’m sure they’ll calm down soon though,” Marco answered nervously.

Jean finally pulled himself up and looked over at them. “Sounds like they eat most of the time. Surprised they’re so small in that case.”

“Ah ha ha, they find a way to burn the calories off somehow,” Marco said.

Eren stood up and stretched. “Do they have a habit of chasing horses around or something?” After asking that, he quickly looked over at Jean and said, “Oh, wait. They do. We saw it earlier.”

_If I hear one more horse joke from that mouth of his, I’ll be slipping hot sauce into his food tonight._

“N-no they don’t, my father makes sure they can’t get into the stables we have. They did one time, and it was my fault.”

“They make a mess of the place?”

“Yeah. Horses were pretty freaked out too.” Marco laughed nervously. “Still don’t know how they didn’t accidentally step on the little guys during the whole fiasco.”

“How many horses were in the stable when they went in?”

“Twelve.”

Eren stared at Marco, surprised. “That’s like four horses per rabbit!! Are you sure none of them got hurt?!”

“Yeah, I asked Papá several times if they really were fine, and he told me that they were all right.”

Jean looked over at Marco. “How much trouble did you get in?”

“… Uh, less than I expected. Papá basically scolded me on making sure that the rabbits never went back to the stables.”

Jean stared at Marco when he heard his answer. “Hold on, he didn’t ground you?!”

Marco shook his head. “No. He’s never grounded me for anything?” He tilted his head. “Why? Is it odd?”

“All parents ground their kids at one point in their life times!” Jean leaned closer to the freckled boy as he continued. “I don’t know one person who as never been grounded!”

Marco blinked curiously. “… So, you and Eren… have been grounded?”

Eren looked at Marco, looking as surprised as Jean when he heard Marco had never been grounded. “Yeeeeaah, and how old are you?”

“I’m turning 16 in the summer.”

Jean instantly replied. “Okay, there is no way you can be this old and have never been grounded!” Marco just looked at both boys, clearly confused. Sighing, Jean shook his head. “Never mind…”

_Okay, this kid is clearly pampered by his dad. Or is more along the lines of an angel than a human, and has never caused trouble… intentionally anyway._

Marco was silent for a while before asking. “Can either one of you describe what it’s like to me?”

“… Hah?”

“Being grounded. Is it when you’re locked up in a room for months and starved while in there?”

“Whoa, no!” Eren quickly interrupted the clueless boy. “That’s abuse! Grounding is supposed to just be when you are not allowed to do certain activities! Usually you’re restricted from leaving your house or room except for certain activities like school or whatnot, but not for months, usually just a few days! And certainly not locked up, or to starve either!”

“Oh,” Marco nodded. “Then what sort of activities are you not allowed to do when grounded?”

“Usually entertainment that would normally be allowed. Unless its reading, performing music or art. That’s usually always allowed when grounded.”

Marco blinked in surprise. “That doesn’t sound to bad.”

Jean sighed. “Well, you can miss out on some things that you would really like to go too.”

“Things like what?”

“Parties. Plays. Sports.” Looking over at Eren, he added, “Concerts. There are a few other things, but those are the major ones. For us anyway.”

Marco bit his lower lip. “That does make the whole thing sound more serious.”

“Are you sure you have never been grounded?” Jean asked as he raised an eyebrow.

Marco thought for a moment.“… There are a few things I have never been allowed to do. Does that count?”

“… No. If its something your not allowed to do at all under any circumstances, then it doesn’t count.”

“Then I think I can say I’ve never been grounded.”

Jean stared at him, not sure if he really believed him. Just then, he felt something climbing on top of his foot. He froze. “Uh, someone please tell me that’s not a rabbit on my foot?”

Marco looked down at Jean’s feet, then looked back up. “One moment.” He bent down, Jean refusing to see what he was doing. The weight on his foot disappeared. “Okay, there are no rabbits on your feet.” Marco stood back up, holding all three rabbits again.

Jean moved a bit, refusing to look at the rabbits directly. “Thanks.”

Marco’s face broke out a wide smile. “No problem.” Jean couldn’t help but feel a slight flush coming to his face, finally noticing that Marco had a cute smile. The dark rabbit reached upward and brushed himself against Marco’s chin. “Feel better now buddy?” Chocolate buried his face into Marco’s neck. “Not freaked out any more?” After the rabbit rubbed his nose against him, Marco kissed the top of his head. “Good.” Just then, the other rabbits reached up, the brown one frowning again. “Oh, do you guys want kisses too?” The brown rabbit let out a growl, making the boy laugh. “Okay then.”  He then gave kisses to the other two rabbits, making the brown rabbit stop frowning. “Now all three of you are good, right?” Marshmallow buried her face in her paws, and Marco smiled at her. “I’ll take that as a yes.” 

Jean glanced over at Eren, who was looking at the rabbits as they nuzzled against the freckled boy. Marco noticed Eren was looking. “What is it?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing, just looking at the rabbits…”

Marco didn’t answer for a while before getting a bit closer. “Do you want to pet them?”

“… Can I?” Jaeger sounded excited by the offer.

“Yeah,” Marco adjusted the bunnies a bit. “Go ahead.”

Eren reached out and started with the brown rabbit. She froze immediately, breathing carefully. Eren ran his fingers along her ears while Cinnamon watched him with wide eyes. “Wow, she’s really soft…” Marshmallow then stretched over to Eren’s hand, nuzzling it, clearly wanting to get pet. “Hey, you’ll get your turn soon.” That didn’t stop her from crawling out of her previous spot and getting on top of Cinnamon, making the brown one growl once again. “Fine, geeze.”

Jean watched as Eren started petting the white rabbit, which literally nuzzled his hand. “… Does that one like being the center of attention?”

Marco shook his head. “A bit, but Marshmallow just really likes people.” Glancing over to Jean, he added, “Which is why she kept coming towards you earlier.”

“And jumping on my face,” Jean muttered bitterly.

“Better than being bitten though,” Eren said as he tried to move his hand away from Marshmallow, only for her to reach out for it and pull it back. “C’mon, I still have Chocolate to get to.” Trying to pull his hand back, Marshmallow pulled it closer to her again. Eren rolled his eyes and resorted to moving his second hand to the last rabbit. Chocolate didn’t really react to it, just allowed Eren to continue. After a while, Eren tried to pull back, which was easy to retreat his hand from Chocolate. Marshmallow didn’t like the idea so much.

Before Jean realized what happened, she was holding onto Eren’s hand and was being lifted from Marco’s arms, refusing to end physical contact. “Yikes, glad it’s not that rabbit that’s angry,” Jean commented.

“Yeah, me to,” Eren agreed as he looked at the bunny, perplexed on what to do. He ended up bringing his hand close to his chest, and Marshmallow pushed her face against Eren. He looked at Marco. “Uuuhhh… Should I just hang on to her? I don’t think she’ll let me go…”

Marco smiled at him. “Yeah, she seems to like you a lot.”

Eren nodded and adjusted the rabbit so that she was in his arms. In return, she settled down, clearly content with her situation. “Wow, she’s spoiled, huh?”

“They all are,” Marco replied.

Jean looked at the rabbits a bit before looking at Marco, “Guess your dad pampers them too?”

“Mmm, a little,” Marco answered him. “He usually just do the check ups though. The other servants like to treat them though…”

A knock at the door interrupted Marco. All three boys turned and Jean saw that it was the tall boy, Bertholdt if he recalled right. “Marco, your father’s back.”

Marco instantly became excited. “He is?!” Before Bertholdt could respond, Marco literally bolted out of the door, with both rabbits in his arms.

Bertholdt looked at the remaining boys. “… Uh… would you like to meet him?”

“Sure,” Eren said. Bertholdt nodded before walking away. Jean stared at him, which Eren noticed. “What?”

“Why do you want to see him? You’re not interested in medicine.”

“Cuz if my dad finds out that I was here and so was the doctor but I didn’t see him, he will give me an hour long lecture of why he is so brilliant, and how I should have taken advantage of meeting him in person… and I’m guessing this guy is not that bad, given how nice Marco is.”

That’s true, and it seemed like Marco was close to his dad, judging by the way how he kept talking about ‘Papá’. Their relationship had to be better than the one between Jean and his own dad. “Fine.”

-

Jean followed Eren as he carried Marshmallow down the stair, heading to the entryway. As they got closer, Eren heard several voices talking. “Do you want me to take you gloves sir?” That sounded like the blonde maid who let them in.

“Mmm, no. It’s fine Annie.” Eren didn’t recognize that voice. It sounded deeper than the other voices, clearly belonging to an adult. Going down further, he finally saw the ground floor, and saw Marco running up to a man who had his back turned to the stairs, along with the blond girl with another boy, blond as well as much taller and well built, bringing a few things in from outside.

“Papá! Your finally back!” Marco set his rabbits down and hugged the man from behind. Yep. It was Dr. Kas Bodt. “How was work?”

“Better than most days in terms of paper work.”

When both boys were halfway down the last flight of stairs, Jean made a loud sneeze that practically echoed in the whole place. Marco turned to the stairs, seeing them. “Oh! Eren! Jean!” Marco ran over to then before grabbing Eren’s hand. “Lemme introduce both of you to Papá!” He turned back around and pulled Eren down, Jean behind them. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Marco continued pulling Eren over to his father, during which Marshmallow jumped down to join her bunny friends. “Eren, Jean,” Marco released Eren’s hand as he stepped aside for them. “This is my father.”

Eren watched as Dr. Bodt turned completely around to face him and Jean. Both boys almost jumped when they saw the red blotch on the right side of his face, a scar of some sort, accompanied by an eye patch. After the initial shock, Eren was even more surprised when he realized that Dr. Bodt looked a lot like his son, except for a few features besides the scar and eye patch. His only eye was almost a dark red shade in the current light - might actually be some kind of amber or brown shade though – his nose was a bit longer and not as round as Marco’s own, his facial features overall were more sharp as well, including higher cheekbones, his skin was a lighter skin tone, and his hair was longer and messy, and there was some facial hair growing.

The doctor looked at the boys before smiling. “Hello.”

“Papá, this is Eren and Jean. They were caught in the storm, and they have to stay the night,” Marco quickly explained while slightly bouncing, like a little kid.

“I see. What were you two doing out here in the country side?”

Jean opened his mouth to say something, but Annie cut in. “They were delivering this to your office. Dumb luck brought them here.” Jean frowned, probably insulted by the ‘dumb luck’ part. “I left the package with Annabelle.”

Marco’s father looked at Jean, who was still frowning. “… We took a wrong turn,” Jean admitted, trying to save his dignity.

“Ah, yes, the forked pathway?”

Jean blinked, clearly surprised. “How did…”

“It’s not unusual for people to make that mistake. I have as well. The sign needs to be restored there. I apologize for having you boys come out all the way here in this weather.” Dr. Bodt looked over at Eren, before his eyes crinkled a bit. “Young man, could you come a bit closer? I just want to check something.”

“Uh,” Eren slowly stepped closer. “Sure?”

Before Eren realized it, Dr. Bodt was holding his face by the chin with his gloved hand, angling it so he could look at his eyes. “Mmm, interesting eye color."

_… Oh. This again about my eyes._

Ever since he was born, Eren had eyes that had were a combination two colors instead of just one. And the patterns for both eyes weren’t identical, making it even more noticeable when looked at.

Marco tilted his head. “Papá, what are you doing?”

Dr. Bodt looked over at Marco before turning back at Eren. “May I show my son this?” After Eren gave a short nod, the older man gestured to his son to come closer. “Marco, I want to show you something.” Marco hesitated, and his father smiled at him for encouragement, “Come on.” Marco shyly came over, and his father pointed at Eren’s eyes. “You see how his eyes are both green and yellow? The first eye color, the yellow, starts around the pupil, but changes to green. And then there are a few specks of the yellow color towards the edge.”

“Mm-hm.”

“It’s a condition called ‘Heterochromia iridum’, and in Eren’s case, it’s central. There are several causes for this type of condition, most of them genetic.”

Marco smiled. “That’s amazing!” Eren blinked with surprise that Marco wasn’t freaked out in any way. Most of the time, people who did realized that his eyes weren’t normal would think he was weird.

Eren heard Dr. Bodt chuckle at his son’s amazement and felt his face being let go. “I thought you would be interested.”

“Hey! Get off of that!!” Eren glanced over and saw that the blond boy was trying to get the rabbits off of a few boxes that were set down next to the door. Cinnamon was the only one who acknowledged the boy by looking at him, but she just glared at him and growled.

“Sorry Reiner!!” Marco quickly went over to the boxes and took his rabbits off them.

“It’s fine,” ‘Reiner’ said as he finally picked up the boxes. He looked over at the doctor. “Same place as usual sir?”

“Yes, that would be fine.” Reiner started heading to the stairs, brushing past Jean.

“Papá,” Marco quipped as he was adjusting his bunnies, “Are you going to be able to join us for dinner tonight? Lidia’s going to make risotto.”

Dr. Bodt rubbed his chin. “Mmm, I’m not sure if I’ll have the time tonight. I need to do some work in the basement.”

Marco’s smile fell and he looked down at his rabbits. “Oh. Okay.”

“… I might be able to take a break when dinner’s ready though. Can’t make any promises that I actually can though.”

Marco’s head turned upwards again. “Really?!”

“Mm-hm. Have Bertholdt come down when Lidia’s finished,” Dr. Bodt instructed, “And if I’m not in the middle of something urgent, I’ll be there.”

Marco’s trademark smile came back as he nodded. “Alright!”

“I just hope there will be something left when I’m ready to eat.”

Marco giggled at his father’s comment. “I’m sure there will be. The bunnies won’t have too much.” There was a low chuckle before Dr. Bodt started walking in the opposite direction of the kitchen.

Eren noticed Jean staring at Marco. “… That was your dad?”

Marco looked over at Jean and nodded. “Yep, that was Papá.”

“… I always pictured some guy with neat hair, clean shaven, and uh… no eyepatch.”

“Papá isn’t the best at maintaining himself.” Marco answered before adding the next part while pouting a bit. “He gets so caught up in work, there have been times where someone would have to tell him to shave.”

“Really.”

“Yeah, it’s a bad habit of his. I used to tease him about it when I was smaller.” He then giggled a bit. “One time I tried to use scissors to give him a trim while he was asleep when I was four. He woke up and got me to stop. And then he went to shave.”

“Wow. That’s impressive,” Jean said. He then frowned. “How did you get the scissors?”

“My mother was in my room cutting something and left them on my bed.”

Now it was Eren’s turn to frown. “Really?”

“… Yes?”

“Our moms never held anything that was potentially dangerous near us when we under 7 years old. Let alone in our rooms.” That was true. Eren recalled being scolded by his mother after playing around with some matches.

“Well, Mamá was a bit careless,” Marco said sheepishly. “There were a few things that she kept doing when I was younger.”

Eren stared at him. “Like?”

“Things like putting her wine too close to my juice or mixing up the liquor chocolates with the plain kind.”

“Okay, that does happen occasionally,” Eren admitted. Both his and Jean’s mothers have done both of those things when they were younger. Eren was more susceptible to the chocolates due to his sweet tooth.

Readjusting the bunnies in his arms, Marco flashed his basically trademark smile. “So, do you want to go back to the music room?”

“I think we’ve had enough of the music for now,” Jean said. “How long did the cook say we had to wait for dinner?”

“Lidia said it would be ready in an hour and a half, and it’s been about 20 minutes since then.”

“You know anything that we can do that will take up an hour then?”

As if to answer Jean’s question, there was a loud thunderclap. All three rabbits were freaked out and jumped down from Marco’s arm, scrambled around before running off to the double doors that were at the bottom of the stairs, right underneath the library upstairs. “Not again!” Marco went after the rabbits, Eren and Jean walking behind him. The rabbits squeezed through the small crack in between the doors and vanished. They were tiny after all. “Ahh… get back here!” Marco opened the door completely and was about to go through.

“What’s that?”

Marco turned to face Jean. “The dining room. They are allowed in there, but not by themselves, and there are a few other rooms that are connected from there that they aren't allowed…” He bit his lower lip before continuing. “If you guys want to go off and look around the place some more, that’s fine. I can take care of this myself.” With that he turned around.

Before Marco could go though the doors, Jean stopped him by grabbing his shoulder. “No, we’ll help you find them.”

Eren stared at the blonde. “Wait, are you actually offering free help?”

Jean glared at him and let go of Marco. “It can happen.”

_Yeah, once in a bluemoon._

Marco turned back around. “Are you sure your both okay with helping me look for them? You guys helped me earlier already. And I know you don’t like rabbits.” He added that last while looking at Jean.

Jean grimaced. “Look, I may not like rabbits, but I think your gonna make yourself sick if you look for them on your own.”

Eren had agreed with that. “He’s right. You said it yourself earlier, it’s hard to find them since they’re so small.”

Marco chewed his lower lip. “… Both of you are sure that you don’t mind helping?”

“Yep. And it’ll give us something to do.”

After a moment, Marco nodded. “Alright. Thanks.” He went into the dining room and was followed by the two boys.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a head cannon based on the 2nd OVA that Jean loves food. And it is cannon via Isayama that Eren has a sweet tooth, but I didn't know when I started writing the chapter XD I found out by this post: http://plain-dude.tumblr.com/post/96970507588/updated-with-the-latest-bessatsu-q-a
> 
> In case any of you were wondering, I visualize Marco's dad in this fanfic to be similar to Dark!Marco. Plus Marco really has no idea what is in the basement... more or less. More on this in later chapters! -cackles-
> 
> Feel free to comment or shoot me some questions if you have any ^^


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAH, I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK ME FOREVER TO UPDATE!!  
> I've been having a pretty shitty month for several reasons. One, i've had mid-term tests smacking me left and right. Two, if you anyone asks to borrow your computer without wanting to tell you why they can't use their own, say no! Don't make the same dumb mistake I did and pay for it with a virus on your DX  
> Took me two weeks to get it out, and I lost a lot of stuff QAQ  
> But on the bright side, i managed to get a part-time job and got some money :D  
> Also, if you guys have tried to message me and I haven't responded, it's because I'm busy! I don't mean to ignore you!
> 
> BTW, I edited the last chapters a bit. Just FYI
> 
> -  
> UPDATE!  
> I changed hispanic to latino/a because someone told me that latino/a is the preferred term. I apologize to anyone I offended, and please correct me in the future if I make a mistake similar to this again.

The moment Jean went into the dinning room with Eren, he was impressed by it. The room itself was huge, as well as the table in the center of the room that had 14 chairs in total. There was also a total of nine other doors, four on the left wall as well as the right, leaving one that was on the wall opposite of the main doors, a few feet from the fire place in there that had a picture hanging above it, which Jean didn’t really see what it was, since he was still distracted by the size of the place. Jean let out a whistle while looking. “Damn, heard your dad was loaded, but this was way more than I expected.” He saw a smaller tabletop next to the wall and traced his finger along it.

He heard Marco laugh shyly. “Really?”

“Yeah. How long has he had the place? He must have really spent a lot of money to buy it.”

“… Not really… He…” Marco paused, sounding a bit uncomfortable, “… It was part of his inheritance when his parents died.”

“…Sorry.” Jean rubbed his head in shame.

Marco waved his hands in front of him. “N-no, it’s perfectly fine! I just don’t know the exact details of the event.”

“… Okay… so,” Jean said in an effort to change the subject, “Any ideas on where to look first? For the…“ He forced down a shudder while pausing before saying the dreadful word. “… Bunnies.”

Marco put a finger to his chin. “Lemme think… Marshmallow likes to try fitting into the tea sets, and I’ve found her in both teapots and cups every now and then. Chocolate, he will always try to get any sweets that are around, which isn’t good for his health. Cinnamon… she tends to take the furniture apart.”

Jean froze. His mind instantly translated ‘take the furniture apart’ to ripping everything up with her teeth. “… What do you mean by take furniture apart?”

“Taking cushions and pillows out of their proper places, then putting them all together.”

“Oh thank god,” Jean sighed in relief. “Thought you meant she tears things with her teeth for a second.”

Eren gave Marco a confused look. “How does she put the stuff together?”

“She nudges them together into a little fort before hiding in it.”

“That’s… kind of cute actually,” Eren said as soon as he heard the explanation.

Jean shook his head. “Haa, no it isn’t! She’s building a fort, which clearly means she wants to raise an army or rabbits to eat us!”

“… Really,” Eren groaned, “Just because she likes to hide in a bunch of pillows?”

“Yes!”

Eren rolled his duo-colored eyes. “I can’t believe we grew up together…”

“Blame our parents,” Jean sassed back. Just then, he heard a small thud. He froze there. “What was that?” Jean heard another thud, and notice it was coming from behind a door that was open a bit.

“Oh, that must be one of them,” Marco said as he opened the door some more and went in, followed by Eren. Jean didn’t follow immediately, fearing that if it was a rabbit, it would come at him. He heard something behind him. The footsteps. Turning, he saw that there was no one there, again. Now feeling crept out a bit, Jean finally took a few steps towards the room. He saw a small circular table in the center of the room that had a vase on the top, a few small bookshelves on the wall that had a few books and decorations. He then saw a sofa next to a fireplace, with the cushions and pillows on the floor.

Marco kneeled down to the pillow and cushion fortress. “Cinnamon, what are you doing?” There was a small sound from the pile before the brown rabbit poked her head out between two pillows. “Causing trouble again?” She retreated back into her fort, making Marco laugh lightly. “Come on girl, you know you’re not allowed in here.”

“I don’t know if she does,” Jean commented dryly. There was a growl, and suddenly Cinnamon busted out of the fort and charged at Jean. “AH, NO THANK YOU!” He immediately ran out of the room, pushing Jaeger to the side, and closed the door on the rabbit, hearing a small thud as something collided into it. After a second, Jean felt the rabbit continuing to ram against the door. He then heard Jaeger say, “Whoa, cut that out! You're gonna hurt yourself!” The bumping eventually stopped. “Kay horse face, I got her.”

Jean slowly opened the door and looked at Jaeger, who was indeed holding Cinnamon. “… Thanks,” Jean said as he carefully stepped back in.

“Cinnamon, why do you keep bullying the poor guy?” Marco scolded the rabbit as he took her from Eren before going to the fort and started putting the cushions back. “What did he do to you?” Cinnamon made a small sneeze. “Tch, silly bunny.” When he finished, he searched the bookshelves before going to the table. Jean saw that there was a tea set on the table, as well as a small box. Marco took the lid off the tea pot and looked in. “… Okay, Marshmallow didn’t try to squeeze in here, that’s good…”

“She managed to get into that?!” Eren pointed at the teapot, which was barely the size of the white rabbit herself.

“She thinks she can. When she does get in, we sometimes have to break the tea pot open to get her out…” Marco looked at the other cups before leaving the tea set alone. “Guess she’s in another room…” Marco then was looking at a small box next to the tea set and frowned, which made Jean notice the lid was slightly out of place. Marco took the lid off and looked inside. “Oh no.”

Jean raised an eyebrow at that. “Oh no… what?”

“Chocolate got some of the candied flowers.”

Curious, Jean came over and looked at the box’s contents. He saw that there were some yellow-red flowers with sugar on them, but there was also a noticeable empty space. And the flowers did look out of order. “At least we know he was here.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t stick around. He likes to graze on everything he can find, and it’s not healthy for rabbits to eat the same amount of sweets humans do,” Marco explained. “And he already got some pastries this morning, so he’s definitely pushing his luck today,” he finished with a worried tone of voice. Marco set the lid back down and headed to the door.

“How often does he manage to eat sweets?” Eren asked Marco as he followed him out.

“He succeeds at least three days a week, but he tries every day multiple times.”

Eren nodded, “He’s persistent.”

“Not to the point that Cinnamon is,” Marco said half-jokingly. “I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if she was the sweet-lover.”

Jean looked down at the light-brown bunny, who simply snuggled against Marco. “Me neither…”

Eren pointed at the door. “Okay, so should we go to the next room?”

“Yeah, sure.” Marco went back to the door with Eren following. Jean quickly reached into the box and popped a few of the flowers into his mouth and his pocket. It was just a few flowers, no one would miss them. Making sure to put the lid back, he quickly went back out. He saw that Marco was pushing open the door directly across from the current room. “Chocolate, you in here?” Jean quickly caught up with them just before Marco went in. “Chocolate?” Following Marco inside, he saw that this room was bigger than the last one, with two sofas and a coffee table between them, a desk next to the left wall with a drawer besides it, and three bookcases in total, one on both the left and right and opposite of the door. He also noticed that there was a phone on the table.

“Wait, you also have a phone?”

“Y-yeah, but it’s not working,” Marco said apologetically. “The wire that go out of the house were chewed on, so we can’t use any of them.”

“… What chewed on the wires?”

“… Mice,” Marco answered while trying to avoid Jean’s stare, who noticed that Cinnamon was also glancing away.

_Guess that answers that question._

Eren pointed at the bookshelf that was on the left side of the room and asked Marco, “Do you want me to look in the shelves?”

Marco looked at Eren and nodded. “That would be great.” Marco looked at Jean before asking, “Do you mind if you can get the other one?”

“The rabbits won’t jump out at me, will they?”

Marco shook his head. “Nope, usually Marshmallow is usually fixated on trying to fit into the tea set, and Chocolate is preoccupied with finding something to eat.”

Jean nodded. “Alright.” He went over to the right wall’s bookcase and started searching. He ignored the shelves that were basically crammed with books, there was no way either bunny could fit in there, even with their size being only about that of his hand. Focusing on the shelves that had room, he started shuffling through whatever was there, careful not to make a huge mess. After the first three shelves, he was rummaging the fourth one when he found a framed photo. Pulling it closer so he can look at it out of curiosity, he saw that it was Marco, probably 4 at the time, wearing a sailor suit, grinning ear to ear while holding…

_OH GOD._

Sure enough, it was another rabbit. It didn’t look like the ones that Jean had already seen. The head size was way smaller than the rest of the body, and the rabbit was at least four times the size of the ones that were running around. Its fur was white and black, the black part both as distinct markings on the rabbit’s ears, eyes and nose as well as scattered dots. “Uh…” He held the photo to show Marco, who had turned from the coffee table’s décor to look at him. “I thought you said there were only three rabbits.”

“Oh,” Marco said as he stood up and walked over. “That was Chip. He passed away about five years ago. Old age.” He took the photo frame from Jean and looked at it fondly. “Papá got him for my fourth birthday.”

“… Sorry to hear that. The rabbit dying I mean.”

Marco nodded. “He was sweet. Didn’t cause as much trouble as these little guys,” he said while giving Cinnamon a quick glance. “Maybe if they had the chance to meet him, they wouldn’t go make trouble everywhere they go.”

Jean nodded. So Marco got the bunny trio after the first one died. “Guess your dad got them for you so you wouldn’t get lonely?”

“… Actually, it was my grandparents who got them.”

Jean blinked in confusion. “Wait, thought you said that you never knew them.”

“I never knew my paternal grandparents. I did get to meet my maternal ones though.”

“Where are they now?”

“… They also passed away as well… a few months after Chip…” His voice had dropped a bit.

Jean scratched his neck, regretting his choice to press on with the questions. Again.

_SECOND TIME KIRSCHTEIN!! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!_

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring all of this up.”

Marco shook his head. “N-no, it’s fine…” Marco gave a small shrug. “They were both in their seventies. … I mean, it was still a shock when it happened, but I knew I had to be ready.”

“... Mm, I get it. My grandfather passed away three years ago. Old bird smoked too much,” Jean said in an effort relate to him. “Doctor told him that he was gonna die a year before then, but it was still a surprise when the day arrived.”

Marco looked at him. “Were you two close?”

“Yeah, he took me to art museum a lot.” He smiled while recalling the multiple times his grandfather took him to different art gallery and gave him a sketch book to draw whatever he saw.

Marco smiled a bit. “My grandparents took me to museums as well.” Jean felt a small blush come to his face at the smile.

_Damn, he’s really cute._

“Whoa!!” Jean and Marco turned to Eren, who had jumped away from the drawer he was searching. Jaeger turned to face Marco and pointed at an open drawer. “Found Chocolate. And I don’t think he wants to be disturbed at the moment.”

Marco placed the photo down and went over to Eren. “Lemme see…” Eren moved and Marco looked in. “Chocolate, there you are,” Marco said as he pulled the drawer out some more. “And your eating cookies. You know you’re not suppose to eat those things!"

Now curious to see what the damage was, he came over and looked into the drawer. He saw Chocolate sitting in the drawer, next to an open box, different kinds of cookies peaking out as well as scattered all over the bottom, and watched as Chocolate continued eating whatever was in his mouth. “Hey, just out of curiosity, why can’t he eat cookies?”

“A rabbit’s system doesn’t process the starches the same ours do,” Marco explained and pulled the dark bunny out and set him next to Cinnamon, watching as he eliminated the cookie he was currently eating. “Bad bunny. Ymir spend all day yesterday getting these rooms clean, and you went ahead and made a big mess with the cookies.”

Jean tilted his head. “Who’s Ymir?”

“She’s another one of the servants, but she was out with Papá earlier to help him get a few things. She should be back in now, but Lidia is probably having her help out with dinner.”

“Are there any other servants, besides the ones we already met?”

“Of the ones who live here and work full time, there’s also Krista. Annie, Reiner, Ymir and Bertholdt live here as well. And so does Annabelle, but she’s mostly working with Papá, so I don’t think she really counts as a servant. Adrian… well, he started working here three years ago as Papá’s assistant also, and sometimes he spends the night, and other times he doesn’t. All the other servants works part time, and Papá helps them find a stable job when they finish their term.”

Jean nodded. “… Wait, is Lidia also part time?”

“Mmm, yes and no. She’s been working here for two years while most of the part time servants just stick around for half a year, but she works one week and is off-duty for the next one.” He gave a small laugh. “She usually cooks enough for everyone to eat on while she’s gone, but she also gives recipes for Reiner to cook meals with just incase something doesn’t last long enough.” Chocolate tried to go back to the drawer, but Marco didn’t give him the chance by standing up. “No more sweets for you buddy.” Chocolate looked up at him and Cinnamon pressed against him, as if to comfort him.

“So, two down, one to go.” Jean couldn’t help but feel this would be a lot quicker than he originally thought. They found the bunnies in the first rooms that were searched, so it was more than likely that the last one would be in the next one.

-

Marco heard Jean groan in frustration and turned his head to see the blonde ruffling his hair. “Okay, this is the fifth room we’ve searched so far, and we still can’t find her!” He looked around. “What, did we offend her somehow?”

“Yeah, she realized how horrible your hair cut is,” Eren said plainly while looking through one of the bookcases. Jean glared at him and growled.

“Uh, she should be somewhere,” Marco assured. “She doesn’t like being left alone for a long period of time…” He nervously held Cinnamon and Chocolate closer as he resumed looking through the blankets that were kept in the drawer that he was looking through.

“How long can she stand being alone?” Eren asked.

“Uh, with the other two, about an hour. Without them… she can barely sit still for more than 20 minutes… unless she’s stuck in something… like a teapot.”

“Oh, yeah,” Eren responded, “You did say something about her needing help when she gets inside the teapots.”

Jean looked at Marco, his hair a bit of a mess after ruffling. “How long have we been searching again?”

Marco was caught off guard at that question. “Uh…” He figured that it took about 25 minutes to find the first two, and it had been another 30 minutes since then. “Not too long,” he said weakly.  He then heard a small scream coming from the dining room. It sounded like Marshmallow. Alarmed by the sound, Marco quickly ran back out and looked at the ground. He heard the screaming again and looked over at the room on the far left side of the room. “Marshmallow?” The bunnies he was currently holding jumped down and ran towards the doorway, prompting Marco to follow. As soon as he got in, he saw Marshmallow on the table, her head stuck in a china bone teapot as she was trying to get it off. “Marshmallow!” There was another distressed sound from the rabbit as the other two quickly joined her on the tabletop, trying to comfort her.

Marco heard footsteps coming towards him from behind and turned to see Eren and Jean. “Found her?” As soon as those words left Eren’s mouth, his eyes went wide when he saw the white rabbit struggling with the teapot. “Oh my god!” He ran over to the rabbit looked at Marco with panic. “What do we do?!”

“Uh, I know there’s some lubricant we usually use whenever she does get stuck!” Marco blurted out, “I’ll go grab it! Please make sure she doesn’t do anything too drastic!!” Just then, she tried to get off the table, but thankfully Eren caught her as she was just about to. Marshmallow continued screaming as she was placed back on the table. “Ah, stay here please!!” As he tried leaving again, she tried hopping towards him, and Eren had to catch her again.

“Guess this is gonna be harder than we originally thought,” Jean said as he came up to the table. “I can get the lube if you want. Given she doesn’t wanna be without you.”

Marco opened his mouth, but wasn’t sure what to say. “Need help?” Marco looked back at the door and saw Ymir walking in.

“Ymir! Can you get the lubricant? Marshmallow got stuck again.”

Ymir walked over and took a look. “… At least it isn’t as small as the one last time. Gimme a sec.” She turned back at the door and headed out. “Krista, where’s the rescue-lube?”

“In the cabinet, lemme get it.” Marco listened as Ymir and Krista went back to the kitchen.

Marshmallow continued with whining as she made another attempt to push the pot off her head. “Oh, sweetie, it’ll be alright,” Marco said in an attempt to get her to relax a bit so that it would be easier to get her out of the pot. He started petting the visible fur, which did get her to stop thrash around. “Shhh, shhh…”

After a few minutes, Marco heard footsteps coming back into the room and saw Krista walking in with Ymir. “Hey, guess someone thought she could hide from the storm in the teapot.” Krista smiled at the boys as she made her way to the bunny. “Okay Marshmallow, let’s get you out.” She took out a small bottle of lubricant and started applying it to the teapot’s edge, getting some underneath the rim as well. “Okay, that should be enough.” She set the bottle aside and grabbed the teapot with one hand and held Marshmallow gently with the other. “Here you go.” With that, the teapot finally came off.

Marshmallow shook her head, the fur of which was a bit of a mess, and Chocolate and Cinnamon started grooming her. “Oh, you better now girl?” Marco started petting her to get her to relax completely, since she was still making distressed noises.

He looked up and saw Ymir looking at Eren and Jean, studying them. “… So which one’s top and which one’s bottom?” Marco watched as both boys went pale at the question, and Marco just tilted his head in confusion.

_Is she talking about some kind of game?_

Krista turned away from the bunnies and glared at the other girl. “Ymir, that is none of your business!” She went over to her and smacked the back of the freckled girl’s head. Turning back to Eren and Jean, she bowed apologetically. “Sorry about her, she has a habit of sticking her nose into other people’s business, especially couples.”

Eren nodded. “Got it… and we’re not together.” He added the last part while glaring at Jean.

“Oh, my apologies. I didn’t mean to suggest that you were one.” She smiled at them. “May I ask if you boys have any preferences for drinks during dinner?”

Marco saw Jean’s eyes light up a bit. “Can we have alco-?”

“No alcohol for you guys,” Ymir stated plainly. “The doctor wouldn’t stand for it for a moment.”

Jean nodded, looking a bit disappointed. “Okay… so what can we have?”

“Well, we have some white tea that was recently imported from China. Would you be interested in that?”

“Yeah, totally,” Jean said immediately in a slightly excited voice, which Eren rolled his eyes at.

Krista smiled again. “Alright.” She looked over at Eren. “And you sir?”

Eren shrugged. “I don’t mind white tea.”

“Alright,” Krista said and looked at Marco. “Master Marco, any requests?”

“I’m fine with the tea also,” Marco said quickly, not wanting to bother Krista too much.

“Hey… why are you looking me like that?” Everyone looked at Jean, who was looking at Marshmallow with fear, who was looking up at him. “Stop looking at me…” Marshmallow wiggled a bit before jumping to Jean’s chest. “AHH!!” Jean fell backwards and landed on the floor, refusing to move with the rabbit on him.

Marco was about to get her off when Ymir said, “Wait, let’s see what happens.”

After a few seconds, he heard as small whine from Jean as Marshmallow was nuzzling his chin. Then there was a horrified gasp. “Sheslickingme.”

Eren leaned in. “What.”

“She’s licking me. She’s licking me!” Marco took a closer look, and indeed Marshmallow as licking Jean’s chin. “Someone get her off, someone get her off!” He stopped talking when Marshmallow got closer to his mouth, and started licking his lips, earing a whine.

Marco bent down and picked her up. “Cut that out girl!” As soon as he got her, she tried to reach for his face. Holding her closer, he felt her tongue start licking his cheek. “Pfft, glad you feel better.”

Marco glanced over at Eren, who was smirking at Jean while leaning over him. “You know rabbits lick people they love, right?”

Jean rubbed his mouth with his sleeve while glaring at Eren before growling out, “That’s a lie.” He then glanced at Marco. “Is that true? Rabbits will lick people they like?”

“Y-yes, it’s true,” Marco said while going back to the table and picking up the other two. As soon as he did, the other two bunnies started licking him as well.

There was a miserable whine from the boy. “Why me? I hate rabbits.”

“She’s affectionate to everyone,” Ymir said plainly as she started going out before looking back at Marco. “By the way, dinner’s almost ready. Lidia said to make sure you wash your hands and all that jazz before sitting down.”

“Okay…” Just before she left, he remembered what Papá told him earlier. “Oh wait! Papá said he might be able to eat with us tonight, and to have Bertholdt go down to get him… if he’s available.”

“Okay.”

“And… uh…” He bit his lower lip before continuing, “Chocolate made a mess with the cookies in one of the parlor drawers earlier, and he got some of the candied flowers. I’m sorry, I know you spend all day yesterday getting the place clean…”

“… Which cookies?”

“Uh, the butter cookies that came in yesterday.”

Ymir nodded. “It’s fine, I can clean it. Don’t sweat over it.” With that, she went out and Marco heard another door being opened. Probably the room that Chocolate was in earlier.

Krista turned back to Eren and Jean, who had finally got back up. “Alright, I’ll get your drinks ready and bring them to the table.” With that, she also went out and towards the kitchen.

After a quiet moment, Marco looked back at the two boys. “Uh, thanks for helping me find these guys. Meant a lot.”

Jean nodded. “Glad we could help… Uh, so, guess we’ll just go wash up and come back down for dinner?”

“Yeah, I need to go do that too.” Marco started walking out with the other two. When they exited the double door, he watched as the two boys headed for the stairs and went to their rooms again. He looked at his rabbits, who in return looked back at him. “Okay guys, your gonna stay in my room while the rest of us have dinner here, okay?” Cinnamon made a small growl, clearly not happy with that. “You guys bullied Jean enough for today. I want him to be able to eat in peace.”

-

Eren finished with cleaning his hands and turned the faucet off. “Okay, I’m good to go.” Leaving his room’s bathroom again, he glanced over to the fireplace and saw that it went out with ash left in the wood’s place. Deciding he’ll clean it later, he left the bedroom and saw Jean waiting for him. “Ready?”

“More than ever,” Jean said while smiling.

“You really are going to gain a few pounds,” Eren said as they started back for the stairs.

“I’m curvy and I like it,” Jean sassed back at him while making a face.

Upon getting to the bottom, Eren saw Lidia at the dining room doors while carrying a few things. At that moment, he seriously thought of running back up stairs. It was too late when she turned and saw him though. “Oh, hello again!” She went up to Eren and pinched his cheek. “I understand you helped Marco with his bunnies earlier?” Eren couldn’t help but notice that she had a little bit of an accent. He couldn’t tell what kind though, but it sounded like it was possibly an eastern European accent.

“Y-yeah, sort off,” Eren managed to groan out as he winced in pain, fearing that his face was going to be torn off. He glanced over to Jean and saw that he was trying not to laugh.

_I’m gonna kill him._

Thankfully, Lidia released her hold on Eren. “Well, I’m in the middle of making dessert. It should be done by the time everyone is done with dinner, maybe a few minutes more.”

Jean instantly asked, “What kind of dessert?”

“A surprise, like before,” She answered with a broad smile. “Now, get to the table. And,” She looked at Eren directly, “If you finish all your dinner, I am willing to fix any sweet you want for breakfast.”

Eren’s interest perked at that. “… Sounds fair…”

She patted his shoulder before turning back to the door. “Reiner, are the utensils ready?” She went inside, leaving the boys outside.

“Yeah, just about.”

“Mmm, you got the forks mixed up.” She sounded a bit upset there.

“Whoops, sorry.”

Eren looked over at Jean, who went into the room before Eren did. Closing the door behind him a bit, he saw Reiner and Annie – that was their names, right? – setting a few things like salt and pepper down on the table, with Lidia switching the forks that were already on there. Reiner looked up and smiled at Eren. “Hey, don’t think I’ve manage to talk to you guys properly yet.” He held out his hand for Eren and Jean to shake. “I’m Reiner Braun.”

“J-Jean Kirschtein,” Jean said as he shook his hand.

“Thanks for saving Marshmallow earlier in the library.”

Jean shrugged. “Yeah, whatever…”

Reiner released Jean’s hand and glanced over at Eren. “And your name?”

“Eren Jaeger.” Shaking hands with the blond, Eren couldn’t help but feel a lot of callouses. Probably did a lot of outside work or heavy lifting. Letting go, he looked around to see if Marco was in the room. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen though. “Where’s Marco?”

“He went up to his room. He’ll be down shortly,” Reiner said. “Whether or not he’ll be successful in getting the bunnies to stay in his room is a different matter.”

“Uh,” Jean stared at Reiner, “Pardon?”

Lidia walked up besides Reiner. “Usually the rabbits are allowed to be in here during dinner. But Marco’s worried about you being uncomfortable, so he’s going to try having them stay in his room for tonight.”

“Oh… That’s nice of him,” Jean admitted, turning a light pink.

“He is a sweet boy isn’t he?” Lidia’s smile got bigger. “He reminds me a lot of my own children, when they were still small. Except he actually takes cares of his pets.”

Jean nodded. “His dad must be proud.”

“Proud doesn’t even come close my dear boy. The doctor loves his son so much that never even dares to go too far for long. And if he does go for a long trip, he always ends up buying out whole stores just to bring apology gifts.”

“… That’s nice.” Eren detected a bit of envy in Jean’s response.

_Oh no. Daddy issues coming up again._

Jean’s dad ditched him and his mom and siblings a few years ago, and even though he eventually started visiting again, Jean had been on bitter terms with him ever since. He had every right though. Eren glanced around the room to see if there was anything he could switch the subject to, before Jean got into a really bad mood.

His eyes landed on the painting that hung above the fireplace. He didn’t really pay attention to it before, but now he saw that it was a family portrait, with Marco, his father, and a woman, with both dark skin and dark curly hair that was hanging loose. Eren noticing that Marco’s skin, which was darker than his fathers, was closer to the woman’s own skin in terms of color. He also noticed that the two also shared the same eye color, round nose and jawline. “Uh, is that Marco’s mom in the painting?” He pointed at the painting to emphasize what he was talking about.

“Hmm?” Lidia turned to look where Eren was pointing. “Oh yes! I’ve never met her though, she died a few years before I started working here.”

Ere nodded. “Do you know what her name was?”

“It was Carmela.”

“Carmela, nice name.” Eren glanced at Jean, no longer having any envy in his voice. “Do you know how she met Marco’s dad?”

“No, Kas doesn’t go talking about private life a lot,” Lidia said while crossing her arms. “What I do know of mostly comes from Marco.”

Just then, Eren heard Marco in the distance above say, “No, go back to the bedroom!”

The door, which Eren had left open a crack, opened a bit more and all three rabbits came in. Jean let out a scream as Marshmallow came towards him at full speed and hid behind Eren. “No, no thank you! Don’t want any!” As soon as she was right next to the boys, she started pawing their pant legs, clearly wanting either one of them to hold her. Eren heard Cinnamon growling, as well as a few thumps. Looking to the side, he saw Cinnamon glaring at him while thumping her back feet. He also saw Lidia picking up Chocolate, saying something to him about them being spoiled.

Eren glanced at Reiner, who shrugged. “This tends to happen when he tries to get them to stay upstairs.” He then came over and picked both Cinnamon and Marshmallow up. “Hey, you three rascals have been handfuls today, Marco has been running back and forth for you guys all day.”

There was a sudden thud at the door, and Eren saw that Marco was braced there, horror pasted on his face. “… I’m sorry, I really am. I tried to get them to say up stairs.”

“Master Marco, there you are!” Lidia went up to him and pinched his cheek. “You’re such a good boy, worrying about keeping the guests comfortable while eating! Now, I’m going to be busy with dessert, so don’t wait up me, okay? Everyone else will be eating though.” Marco managed to nod while being held, trying to smile at her.

Annie looked at Jean, her unreadable expression present. “We’ll make sure they won’t bother you while you eat,” Annie said while pulling out three plates with fruit and vegetables out of a trolley that was next to her with several covered plates and setting them down next to the fireplace. “Lidia, Reiner, please bring them over.”

“Happily Annie,” Lidia said as she released Marco and walked over to Annie, setting Chocolate down in front of one of the plates. “Be sure to eat this and no cookies, okay?” As soon as he was down, he dove into the plate. She then went to the kitchen door, opening it and going inside while humming.

Reiner came over and set the other two bunnies down. Cinnamon started to eat besides Chocolate. However, Marshmallow was getting ready to come back over to Jean, who was still hiding behind Eren, much to the shorter boy’s annoyance. Annie clicked her tongue at the rabbit, making Marshmallow stop in her tracks. “Get back here,” Annie said and tapped the floor to emphasize the order. Marshmallow slowly turned around and slowly hopped back over and nuzzled against Annie’s hand, giving it a lick. “Good girl.” Making sure that the last rabbit started eating, Annie stood back up and looked at Marco. “No need to worry about them. They shouldn’t give the guest any more problems for tonight.” She then walked back over to the trolley and took the covered plates off it and placing them onto the table.

“Th-thank you Annie,” Marco said as he massaged his cheek. He walked over at Eren and Jean and smiled at them shyly. “Hi, sorry if I took too long.”

“Nah, we just got here,” Eren assured him.

“Please take your seat now,” Annie ordered the boys, surprising them. “Ymir and Krista will be out with the drinks soon. Please wait a bit longer before eating though.”

“Y-yes ma’am,” Eren said.

He saw Reiner pulling out three chairs on one side of the table. “Here, figured you boys might wanna eat together.”

“Thank you Reiner,” Marco said as he went over to him. Eren and Jean followed suit, sitting in the chairs that were right next to Marco, putting the freckled boy in the center. Eren watching as Reiner went over to help Annie with the finishing touches, which included removing the covers off the plates.

“Oh my god,” Jean said in a quietly excited voice when he saw the food. There was the risotto with dark truffle shavings, with a glazed salmon fillet next to it that was with some asparagus and carrots.

“Glad to see someone’s excited for dinner,” Marco said while smiling. “The last person who visited the house didn’t feel like sticking around long enough to eat.”

Jean perked his eyebrow. “How long ago was that?”

“It was during December. But there was a chance of a blizzard, so it was understandable.”

Jean nodded, then looked at the painting that Eren pointed out to earlier. “Uh…” Marco looked at him, tilting his head. “So… that’s your mom in the painting, huh? Lidia said her name was Carmela.”

Marco nodded. “Mm-hm, that’s Mamá! She was prettier in person though!”

Jean looked back at Marco. “You have the same nose.”

Marco looked to him and a small blush came to his face. “Y-you really think so?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Marco made a small chuckle at the complement. “W-wow, I mean, that’s so sweet of you to say.”

Eren heard Jean quietly say, “You’re sweet.” Marco turned to look at Jean, who immediately stammered, “I-I mean, yeah, sweet! You care for killer bunnies!” After a moment, he buried his face in his hands, embarrassed. “Proceed to ignore me.”

“Don’t worry, no offense taken,” Marco assured Jean, who looked up at him, still embarrassed.

Just then, the kitchen door opened, and Krista and… what was the freckled girl’s name again? Yumi? No, it was Ymir – Ymir came in, the blond girl carrying a matching tea set on a tray, the other one with a water pitcher and a few glasses, who set the pitcher down on the table. Krista walked up to the boys and started placing teacups onto the table, finishing with nine. Eren took a careful look at his, seeing that there was crème-colored with gold paint design both on the outside and inside, which looked like it was suppose to be a floral pattern. It did look like something large enough that Marshmallow could probably sit in if she tried. “Sir,” Krista said while standing behind Marco and Jean, who had straightened up, “If you don’t mind moving a bit from Marco while I pour the tea, it would be appreciated.”

“No problem,” Jean said as he moved his chair a bit. Eren watched as she poured a slightly tinted liquid into his cup and into Marco’s. “Thanks.”

She smiled at him before looking at Eren and said, “Here you go.” Pouring it into his cup, she had it less than a centimeter from the rim before stopping. “Anyone else want tea?”

Reiner said while raising his hand. Annie was pushing the trolley to the kitchen when she said, “Tea.” Krista looked at Ymir, who shrugged.

She quickly started serving the tea, finishing four cups, the fourth presumably for herself, she looked at the other servants. “Does anyone have any idea what Berthold will want?” Before anyone responded to that, there was a sudden knock at the door.

Marco looked at the direction of the door, prompting Eren to look in the same direction. Eren saw Marco’s father at the door while Bertholdt was behind him. “Papá! You made it!” Eren saw Marco’s trademark smile come up on his face as soon as he saw his father.

Dr. Bodt made a small chuckle as he walked over to Marco. “Just in the nick of time. Annabelle was getting ready to have me do some more work. Thank god Bertholdt saved me.” He ruffled Marco’s hair with his right hand, which no longer had a glove on, making his son giggle. Eren saw that there was another scar on it, similar to the one on his face. “I’m sorry,” Dr. Bodt said, startling Eren and making him look up, seeing that his eye was indeed brown, but the shade was very similar to red. “But could you boys give me your names again? I got too caught up with work, and I’m afraid I’ve already forgotten them.” He started walking to the other side of the table so that he was facing all three boys.

“Uh, I’m Eren Jaeger, and the other guy’s Jean Kirschtein.”

Kas’s eyebrow perked up. “Jaeger? Would your father happen to be a Grisha Jaeger, in Trost by any chance?”

Eren could have sworn he choked on air when he heard his dad’s name. “Wh… how did…” He looked at Jean, who looked just as baffled.

“I once had to perform a surgery over at where he works. He asked me if I could provide some advice for future situations, and we have kept in touch ever since.”

Eren forced a smile. “… Really.”

_I’m glad I didn’t skip out on meeting him, my dad would have really chewed me out if I did!_

“… Actually, he might have mentioned you around last year… something about a broken leg that was the result of falling off a tree.”

“Did he say anything about bee stings?” Jean poked his head out a bit while asking. Eren shot him a glare and shook his head.

“Yes, he did.”

Jean smirked. “That was him. I know because I had to carry him home. While running since he disturbed a bee hive.”

Eren was about to tell him to shut up when Marco looked at him with shock. “Oh my god! You had both bee stings and a broken leg? That must have been really painful!”

“Oh, well, uh,” Eren scratched his cheek, “It wasn’t too serious.”

“… How long did it take to heal? The leg I mean.”

“About… seven weeks.”

“It’s a good thing you’re still young. If you were an adult when you break a bone, chances are that it could have taken twice as long,” Kas commented.

Krista came up to Kas before clearing her throat. “S-sir, what would you like to drink? I prepared silver needle tea. But I can always go get something else if you prefer.”

“I’ll just have the tea, thank you,” Kas answered while smiling at her. “You all may take your seats by the way, I don’t want you to stand up forever.”

Krista nodded and poured some of the tea into his cup. As soon as she was done, she turned to Bertholdt, who said, “I got it, don’t worry.” Taking the teapot from Krista and allowing her to take a seat near Ymir, who was on the left side of Reiner, who was next to Dr. Bodt. Annie was on the opposite side of the doctor, and as soon as Bertholdt finished serving himself, he sat down right next to her.

Kas quickly asked, “Do either one of you boys say grace before dinner?”  Eren and Jean quickly glanced at each other, then shook their heads. Both of them had stopped with routinely saying grace before dinner a few years ago. They would wait for people to say grace though if they had to, but they neither one had any interest in it. “Okay then,” Kas said while picking his fork up, “Let’s get started.”

“Alright,” Marco chirped as he grabbed his fork and began eating, soon followed by everyone else, except Eren. After a while, he finally picked his fork up, not sure if he would actually like the food. Prodding the risotto a bit, he finally scooped some of it onto his fork and ate it. Letting it sit on his tongue for a while, he waited to see if it was bitter. Surprisingly, it actually tasted a little like garlic.

_Pretty good._

Liking the taste so far, he kept eating it. Eren heard Jean squealing in an excited tone, making him look at the blond. Jean had some of the risotto in his mouth, and he was clearly enjoying the taste. Eren just rolled his eyes and ate some of the salmon, which to his pleasure was a little sweet from the glaze.

“Eren,” Kas started, catching his attention, “May I ask you if your eye color has been like that since birth, or was something that just developed over time? I’ve had patients who also had heterochromia, both from birth and from some other events.”

“From birth,” Eren answered. “My dad was worried it was caused by some kind of disease or tumor at first, but it turned out to be a genetic mutation only.”

Dr. Bodt nodded, “I see. Some of my patients usually worry about their case being a disease or tumor as well. In the cases that turned out to be tumors, I usually have to test it to see if it’s malignant or not. That’s when I have to perform a biopsy, which is tricky to perform on an eye.”

“Huh…” Eren ate some of his asparagus, surprised by all that info.

“AH-SCHUH!” Eren jumped in his seat before looking at Jean, who had just sneezed while covering his face with his elbow. “Sorry ‘bout that,” Jean apologized while lowering his arm.

Dr. Bodt waved his hand, “It’s fine… How long were you boys out in the storm?”

“About three hours, and it took four hours to get here,” Jean answered before picking up his teacup and drinking out of it.

“By yourselves?”

“Yeah, but we took a wrong turn and there was the rain, so it was unplanned,” Jean said.

Dr. Bodt looked at him, then at Eren. “… I’ll have someone take you home tomorrow by the carriage.”

Eren, who had some of the risotto in his mouth, nearly choked. “Ah, wha?”

“I’d feel safer if you boys weren’t by yourselves going back, given how long it took,” the doctor explained.

“… Uh, well,” Eren stuttered, “Th-thanks…” He was just really surprised that the doctor would actually offer a trip back.

_Maybe Jean was onto something about the whole catholic school thing, just the wrong family member._

He glanced at Jean, who glanced back at him, also gob smacked by surprise from the offer and mouthed ‘Catholic school’.

Eren then noticed Marco looking at him, “What time are you guys leaving tomorrow?”

 “Oh, well, after breakfast. I get the feeling Lidia won’t let me go until I have some…” Eren scratched his head while answering.

Marco giggled a bit. “Yeah, probably. Do you have a regular get up time?”

“I can get up around seven. But,” Eren paused to point his fork at Jean, “He needs help to get up any time prior to 10.”

Jean glared at him. “HEY!”

“Ah, late sleeper, like Marco,” Kas commented.

Marco turned a light pink and looked at his father. “Papá! Don’t say that!”

“Why not? I find it to be rather cute,” Kas said while smiling at his son, whose face was gaining more color with embarrassment.

“Doctor, I meant to ask you earlier if you needed to go out again tomorrow and if you need to get up early again?” Bertholdt asked, his food barely touched.

“Yes, the hospital asked me to come by again by 10 tomorrow,” He said while frowning.

Marco, still a little pink, picked up his teacup, “Is it about the same patient you went to help last night? With the broken jaw?”

“Yes, it is. She seemed to be doing fine when I left, but the hospital wanted to keep me updated. And no one has been able to reach her boyfriend, so no one has me what exactly happened.”

Marco nodded while setting his teacup down again and resumed eating.

Eren placed a carrot into his mouth, casually glancing over to the bunnies. Cinnamon was grooming Chocolate, her plate halfway eaten while Chocolate’s was eaten clean, which made Eren notice that he had started eating out of Cinnamon’s plate. Marshmallow was sitting in her plate, still eating the food on it. He fought the urge to smile at the cuteness. Chocolate suddenly turned his attention to one of the parlor doors, and began hopping towards it. “Uh, don’t wanna interrupt dinner,” Eren said and pointed at the rabbit, “But I think Chocolate’s getting ready to go back into one of the parlors.”

Marco turned and saw the dark rabbit at the door, trying to open it. “Ah! Bad boy!” Marco got up from his seat and picked up the bunny, who was still trying to get to the door. “You already ate too many sweets today, so no more.” Chocolate looked up at the freckled boy before sneezing.

“I guess they’ve been giving you trouble again?” Dr. Bodt questioned.

“N-not me,” Marco said. “They were bothering Jean earlier.” He then took Chocolate back to the other two bunnies and set him down, talking to them for a bit.

Kas eyed Jean, who was biting his lower lip. “He’s afraid of bunnies,” Eren explained casually, forking some more salmon. Jean shot him a quick glare, which was ignored.

“Oh, I see. I’m guessing Marshmallow tried to snuggle with you since you got here?”

“… Something like that,” Jean groaned out.

Marco came back to the table and took his seat again. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine,” his father assured him. “I’m glad you were kind enough to worry about the guest.” There was a slight flush on Marco’s face from his father’s praise. “By they way, I heard one of them was playing the piano before I came home?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. It was Eren,” Marco responded.

“Ah, so you’re a musician?”

“Uh, not really. I mean, I like music and I take classes and perform at concerts some times, but I don’t think that’s going to be my job in the future,” Eren replied while fidgeting with his fork.

“Hmm…” Kas ate some of the risotto before looking at Jean. “Do you play music as well?”

“Nah, if anything, I have trouble understanding pitch.”

There was a light laugh from the doctor. “I see. Are there any other activities you enjoy doing?”

“… Art. Especially drawing.”

“Mm-hm, interesting. I don’t have any art skills in any form.” He let out a strained laugh. “Can’t even draw a straight line. It’s a miracle that my writing is somewhat legible.”

“It’s not that bad Papá,” Marco said.

“Not according to the nurses at the hospital. They make me use the type writer.”

“Oh yeah, they do.”

Eren glanced to the side, wondering if his father had trouble reading the doctor’s letters as well.

_Well, he wears glasses, so probably._

A sudden clap of thunder was heard then, reminding Eren that there was still a storm. Jumping a bit in his seat a bit from the shock, he felt something suddenly jump onto his lap before leaving it. Followed by two more things. Looking to Marco’s lap, he saw all three bunnies there, hiding their small faces against his stomach. “Oh, scared again?” Marco started petting the three cotton balls as they pressed closer to him.

“Least they didn’t go into the pantry,” Ymir muttered, her plate more than half way done.

Simply for the sake of curiosity, Eren looked at Jean to see his expression. Jean had stopped eating and was looking at the rabbits nervously, not daring to move for a few minutes. However, when Marshmallow looked directly at him, Jean flinched. “Hey, stop looking at me…” Jean began moving his seat away, slowly. Eren saw Marshmallow wiggle, like she did before when she jumped onto him in the parlor. “No, no, no, no look! Eren! Eren is next to you!”

Eren wasn’t sure he heard that right. “Huh?” Just then. Marshmallow turned around and looked at Eren with her red eyes. Before he knew it, she jumped back to his lap and looked up at him. “What?” Then, she jumped onto his shoulder, and nestled down next to his neck. Eren then felt her tongue on his neck, nearly making him laugh out loud from the tickling sensation.

Trying to keep his focus on space, he felt her continuing to lick upwards, touching his cheek with her front paws and still continuing to lick his face. “Marshmallow! Cut that out!” Marco reached for her, but she slid down to Eren’s lap before making herself comfy like the other two rabbits. Marco turned his head to face Jean. “I’m really sorry about this.”

“… Just as long as they don’t jump me, they’re okay,” Jean said, probably figuring that the rabbits won’t be leaving.

There was a small cough from Marco’s father, catching the son’s attention. “Yes Papá?”

“Be sure not to let them get onto the table again.” Eren saw Jean raise an eyebrow at that while Marco nodded. “Bertholdt,” Kas faced the tall boy, “If you could just bring the rabbit food closer to Marco just in case, I would appreciate it.”

“Yes sir,” Berthold answered and went over to the rabbits’ dishes and brought them over to where Marco was seated before setting the plates down between him and Eren. Marshmallow saw the larger boy and reached out for his arm, bringing his hand closer to her. “Ahh, Marshmallow, I need to get back to my seat.” When the rabbit didn’t let go, Bertholdt tried appeasing her by petting. It must have worked, because she released her hold on him. As he drew his hand away, he quickly went back to his seat.

“Guess that one really loves attention, huh?” Jean looked cautiously at Marshmallow as she set her head against Eren’s stomach.

“Yes, I’ve found her in my bed on several occasions,” Kas answered. Jean flinched when he heard that, making the doctor laugh lightly. “But I have a bad habit of leaving the door open, so if the door’s closed completely, she’ll just sit there before going to find someone else to be with,” Kas assured him.

“… Okay, good to know.” Jean reached for his tea and took a sip.

“Say, do either one of you boys have pets as well?”

Jean set his teacup down. “Yeah. We both have dogs, and I also have a cat.”

Dr. Bodt froze at the cat part. “I… see… What are your dogs named?”

Eren and Jean glanced at each other. “Uh…” Eren looked bashfully at Kas, “We sort of named one after the other guy?” Jean had gotten Eren a puppy for his 9th birthday, and his mom urged him to repay Jean with a puppy as well. Eren wasn’t sure what possessed him to name his dog after Jean, and he was even more surprised when Jean named his after Eren. He was half-expecting him to name the dog after Mikasa.

“That’s nice. What kind of dogs are they?”

“I have a German shepherd, and Jean has a Schipperke.”

 “A Schipperke?”

Eren looked at Marco, who faced Jean. “Yeah, it’s a small-”

 “Small Belgian shepherd dog. I know. Papá used to have one when he was younger,” Marco quickly said. “Right, Papá?”

“… Yes, that’s right. But it was a long time ago.” Eren saw a small grimace on the father’s face, as if remembering something painful. Eren then heard a knock at the door. Kas looked at the door, “Come in.”

The door opened and a woman about the same age as the doctor with red hair and purple eyes walked in. “Good evening.” Eren blinked when he recognized the voice.

“Annabelle.” Kas smiled at her. “Did you decide to join us for dinner? I can go get another-”

“Doctor, I need to ask you to come back down stairs. Adrian messed up on the procedure he was suppose to do.”

Kas’ smile fell and was replaced with a frown. “He did… are you sure I need to come down now? I would prefer to finish dinner with my son and the guest.”

“I’m sorry, but you do,” Annabelle said sympathetically.

Dr. Bodt held his face with both hands, clearly annoyed. “UUUUUGGHHH… I am seriously considering firing him.”

_Do it._

The doctor quickly stood up. “Annie, could you take my dinner to the kitchen for Lidia to save?”

“Yes sir,” Annie confirmed as she got up and took the plate.

Kas quickly thanked her and went around to Marco. “I’m sorry about this Marco. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“Papá, don’t worry about it,” Marco assured him. “I don’t want you to fall behind work.”

Kas nodded before leaning down to kiss his cheek. “Be sure to go to bed by nine. And enjoy dessert.” With that, he quickly went for the door, disappearing. Annabelle soon followed.

Eren looked back to Marco, who looked a bit disappointed now that his father was gone. He then felt Marshmallow shift around on his lap, before hopping over to her owner. As soon as she was there, all three bunnies nuzzled against Marco, making the boy smile a bit. “Hey, I’m fine, you don’t have to worry about me.” His voice sounded a little down despite his statement.

Eren rolled his fork between his fingers, wondering if it was common for Dr. Bodt having to leave during dinner. He glanced back at Marco, who was trying to smile. It just made him look lonely.

-

Jean had finished eating all of his dinner a few minutes ago, and took another look at the portrait in the room. He was trying to decide which parent Marco reminded him more of. Marco had his dad’s hair – unless he used straightening products, his eye shape, eyebrows, forehead, and those countless freckles. But Marco had his mom’s nose, eye color, and cheekbones. Everything else was a mashup between the two parents, including face shape and skin tone.

Still stumped on the verdict, he looked back at the real Marco. He was almost done with his dinner, but much slower since his father left the table. Picking his teacup up, he took a sip as he thought over a few things.

He was completely baffled by how much Marco’s dad actually seemed to care for him. Apologizing for having to leave in the middle of dinner because he had to work? That’s definitely something his rat-ass of a dad would never do. Plus Bodt actually tried to stay longer for dinner, which Jean knew his own dad wouldn’t so much try to show up.

And he was just as surprised about how nice Bodt was being to him and Eren. He actually bothered talking to them. He asked if either one of them wanted to say grace, and didn’t mind that they didn’t. Then there was the fact he’s willing to lend them a carriage for tomorrow – which Jean felt was going to be needed, since dinner was pretty big, dessert was following, and that Lidia will be making breakfast for them tomorrow. He felt kinda stuffed, but not sick stuffed. More like a ‘ready-for-more’ stuffed. But he knew that he was going to have trouble with keeping his balance on the bike tomorrow.

_Oh, and he gave me a rabbit survival tip._

He quickly glanced at the rabbits at that thought. They were still nestled in Marco’s lap, keeping an eye on him. As much as he was displeased about them being close to him, he didn’t want to bug Freckles about it. They weren’t attacking him at the moment, so he could live with the current situation. Chocolate placed his front paws at the table and sniffed at Marco’s plate. “No,” Marco stated when he saw the rabbit doing that, “Don’t even try it. Cooked vegetables aren’t good for bunnies, especially with butter.” There was a small noise from Chocolate. “Hey, there’s still fruit for you guys, Why don’t you guys finish it?” Marco quickly set the rabbits down again, watching them for a while.  Eventually, they all went back to the remaining plate of fruit.

“… Were you a rabbit god in a past life or something?” Jean questioned him while perking an eyebrow.

Marco made a small laugh. “I don’t think so.”

Jean looked at him, then asked, “Do your rabbits know any other ways to enter bedrooms besides the doors? I know your dad already said that it was important to keep the door closed, but is there anything he might not be aware of?”

“Nope. You should just have to keep your door closed completely, and they shouldn’t bother you,” Marco assured him. Just then, the door that connected to the kitchen opened up, and Lidia walked in. “Hi Lidia.”

“Is everyone finished with dinner yet? The dessert is almost ready.”

“Oh, I’m not finished yet,” Marco said apologetically.

“Same here,” Eren admitted. Indeed there was still food left on his plate. Yet ironically, it was less than what was on Marco’s own.

Lidia nodded, “Okay.” She looked at Krista and Ymir, both of which had finished their dinner. “Krista, Ymir, could you girls help me with clearing the table a bit and getting the dishes for dessert ready?”

“Yes ma’am,” Krista responded before standing up while picking up the empty plates on her side of the table. The second girl got out of her chair and went over to Jean before grabbing his plate.

Lidia held the door open for the girls. “Thank you.” When both girls went through, Lidia looked at Marco. “I’ll make sure there’s enough dessert left for your father if he manages to come back up.”

Marco nodded. “Thank you.” She then disappeared back into the kitchen. Marco resumed eating his dinner, which Jean noticed as a little faster, but not as fast as before.

Then, to his absolute horror, he felt something land on top of his lap. Something alive. Letting out a strained moan, he slowly looked down. His worst fear then was confirmed. Marshmallow was sitting there, looking up at him. In a high pitched tone, he stated rambling. “Why? Why why why why why why?” He froze when he felt something going up and down on his stomach. She was kneading him.

_She wants to cut my stomach out, she wants to cut my stomach out, she wants to cut my stomach out, she wants to cut my stomach out!_

Moaning a bit, he felt Marshmallow as she laid her head down where she was just kneading. “Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god.”

_Now she wanna eat through to my stomach._

“I’m so sorry!!” Marco quickly took the rabbit off Jean, setting her back down. “I really am!”

Jean sighed in relief and looked at Freckles. “Thanks for saving me from dissection.” Marco tilted his head in confusion, and Jean instantly forgot the recent bunny threat, due to his brain immediately registering both Freckles’ action and facial expression as adorable.

_Oh my gooooood, he’s so cute!_

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Eren ask, “Were rabbits the only pets you’ve had in your life?”

_WHY COULDN’T YOU STAY QUIET, YOU RUINED MY MOMENT!!_

“Yeah, just rabbits. Papá did consider getting a dog before, but he was worried about it biting me I guess.”

“How’s that any different with a rabbit?” Jean asked skeptically, recalling that horrible child-killer-rabbits incident.

“Well rabbits have smaller mouths, so there would be less damage if they do bite. Plus they’re easier to clean, and don’t usually need to be bathed. And it’s easier to train them to use a litter box.”

“Wait, what? Litter box?” Jean hadn’t even thought about that.

“Yeah.”

Jean looked at Eren, who seemed just as baffle as he was about rabbits using litter boxes. It took them a month to get their dogs to not do their business in the house.

“… Diiid anyone in your family considered a cat then?”

“No, Papá never liked cats.”

Oh, that would explain his reaction when Jean mentioned that he had a cat. “Possibly because they always sit down exactly where you don’t want them to be.”

“Oh that’s right, you did say something about a cat earlier, right? What’s their name?”

“…” Jean didn’t want to tell him, it was a dumb name.

“Jeanbo.” Jean could have sworn he heard something in the distance break when Eren told Marco that.

_IMGONNAFUCKINKILLHIM._

Marco tilted his head at Eren. “Jeanbo?”

“It was Jean’s baby nickname… wait a sec, his mom still uses it, so I guess it’s his nickname in general,” Eren explained while directing a smirk at Jean.

“Cheap talk from the kid who’s never allowed to be left home alone, and whose parents hire his own sister as a baby sitter.” Eren had a bad habit of leaving ovens and stoves lit, and after a too-close call, his parents had never trusted him to be home alone.

“Make fun of my home-alone-ban all you want,” Eren snarled. “At least I’m not stuck with some ridiculous nickname.”

Marco said, “I think it’s a nice nickname.”

Jean wasn’t sure he heard that right. “Hah?”

“Jeanbo, it sounds cute,” Marco explained. “I guess that must mean that the cat’s cute too.” Jean wasn’t sure if he was horrified that Marco said that, or if Marco had just gotten even cuter. “Is the cat a guy or a girl?”

“His mom thought it was male at first, but it turned out to be a girl.” Eren told him.

“What kind of cat is she?”

“… Calico.” Jean looked down at his teacup when answering.

“That’s pretty neat,” Marco commented.

_GAAAAH, HE CUTE~_

Jean felt himself turn a faint red when there was the now-familiar growl. Jean went stock-still and glanced down, seeing Cinnamon glaring at him.

_… Does she have mind-reading abilities?_

“I wasn’t planning anything,” Jean instantly told the rabbit. There was another growl and her frown grew bigger to Jean’s surprise.

“Cinnamon, quit bothering him,” Marco scolded. The rabbit faced him and grunted. “No.” There was another grunt, which Marco responded by scratching behind her ear. After a few seconds, she stopped frowning.

Jean kept his eye on the rabbit until he heard the kitchen door open again. He looked at the door and saw Ymir peeking in. “How’s everyone on the dinner?”

“I think all of us are just about done,” Reiner told her. Eren had, much to Jean’s surprise, finished all of his food, and Marco just had a little scrap of salmon left now. Everyone else but Bertholdt had finished their dinner, while Bertholdt had a quarter of it left.

_Can I ask him if I can eat it for him?_

“Bert, I’m guessing you wanna save the rest of yours?”

“Yeah.”

_Damn it._

“Kay then, dessert is almost ready. Lemme just take the plates out of your way.”

 Ymir quickly came to the table and picked up the remaining plates and set them down on a tray she had with her and quickly went back to the door. “And don’t worry Reiner, I didn’t lace your plate with chili extract.” With that, she went in.

The room was silent at that last part. Both Eren and Jean looked at Reiner. “… Chili extract?”

Reiner sighed. “She uses it when she has a particularly bad day and needs a laugh. With me as the usual target.”

Jean grimaced at the explanation. “Yowch.”

After a while, the door opened up again, and Jean saw Krista pushing the trolley from earlier back in, with slices of meringue pie. “Dessert’s here!”

Jean looked at Eren and saw his eyes go wide while looking at the dessert. Typical. Krista stopped the trolley next to the table, Ymir behind her. “Hope you guys like lemon.”

“Lemon?” Eren sounded just a bit TOO excited there, making Jean scoot further away.

“Yeah. I think Lidia has been meaning to use our lemons up, and I guess she took advantage of it. She ended up making two pies.”

_Minus the rabbits, this place is perfect._

Krista set the pie slices in front of the boys, and Jean couldn’t help gap at the utter perfection. He tried to make this thing before, and it turned out to be really shitty. The filling was runny and sour, the crust was uneven and wouldn’t stay together when cutting, and god the meringue -hardest shit to do right. He didn’t even want to recall the details on that part. Yet, here we was, looking at this non-soupy, crust intact, wonderfully made meringue lemon pie . The top was just a little brown, like a toasted marshmallow, and was still standing. Spotting the fork that sat on the plate, he quickly picked it up and ate a bite of it. The filling and meringue proved to be sweet, making Jean squeal.

“Hey, that’s my slice!” He looked up and saw Reiner looking at Ymir, who had a still intact slice in front of her while his was missing a bit.

“Just proving I didn’t put chili extract on it.” Krista smacked the back of the taller girl’s head. “Fine, I’ll switch plates.” Ymir quickly swapped her plate with the one she just ate out of.

Jean then heard Eren gulp, and he looked at the smaller boy, seeing that he had started devouring the sweet delight, getting some of it on his face. Eren looked up, and noticed that Jean, and everyone else apparently, noticed. “… Uh…”

Marco didn’t say anything, and began eating his food noisily as well, surprising Jean. He saw that Eren also seemed surprised, but the servants didn’t really seemed surprised. But after a few seconds, the boy made a small noise and started to laugh. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” Oh god, that was adorable.

_You’re so cute, don’t apologize!_

“It’s fine,” Krista said as she began eating her slice. “Just as long as you don’t choke.”

Marco sheepishly smiled and ate some more of his slice while Eren used his napkin to clean his face, and resumed eating at a slower pace.

The pie wasn’t as big as dinner was, but Jean took his time with it, savoring the sweet-lemony taste. He eventually finished everything on his plate, just when Eren did. Just then, there was a large bang from the door, making everyone jump. “How was the pie?” It was just Lidia.

“G-great, b-but don’t scare us like that again,” Marco stammered.

“My apologies, my sweet boy.” She came over and pinched Marco’s cheek. How his face was still intact had officially became a mystery to Jean. Lidia turned to face Eren. “And I keep my promises, so tell me what you would like me to fix tomorrow.”

“Uh… french toast?”

_Some people just don’t know how to aim high._

“Would you like stuffed french toast?”

Jean blinked at that. He looked at Eren, who seemed baffled and looked at Jean, and Jean squirmed while making a face.

_TAKE THE OFFER._

“… Sure?”

“Good!” Lidia released Marco’s cheek, which was still on his face surprisingly, and turned to face Jean. “I assume that’s fine with you?”

“Y-yeah.”

To his horror, Lidia grabbed his cheek and pulled, nearly tearing it off. “What a darling boy you are!” This woman was beginning to remind him of his mom. “I promise that there will be a biiiiiig breakfast tomorrow.” Lidia released him and walked off while humming.

Jean looked at Marco. “… How is your face still on?”

“I honestly have no clue,” Marco admitted.

After a few more minutes, everyone had finished their dessert. Jean looked at Marco, and saw that he was nodding off. “You okay?”

“Mm?” Marco blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. “Wha?”

“You seem to be nodding off.”

“… Oh! I’m fine, just a little tired…” Marco stood up and grabbed his plate.

“Hey,” Ymir said and made Marco stop. “We’ll take care of the plates, don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, are you sure?”

“Yeah, no need to help us out, or we’d be out of a job.” Ymir got up and took Marco’s plate from him. “You and your bunnies can go.”

“Alright.” Marco bent down and picked his rabbits up. “Hope you guys had enough. Especially you, Chocolate. Don’t want you to go eating more sweets and get sick.” Marco started walking out of the room, before looking back at Eren and Jean. “Uh, I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow morning?”

 “Y-yeah,” Jean answered.

Marco smiled at them. “Okay. Good night then.”

_Wait, is he already heading to bed?_

He watched Marco turn around and continued walking out and saw him yawn.

_Guess he is… but wasn’t he asleep earlier? Maybe he had to get up really early this morning._

Jean heard Eren pull his chair out. “Thanks for dinner. And dessert.”

“No problem.”

Eren started to leave, and Jean decided to follow. No reason to stay in the dinning room any more. “Guess I better leave now.”

“Wait.” Jean froze when Annie spoke to him. She walked up to him and held several dollars up. “I said I would pay you if you helped with Marshmallow earlier.”

Oh yeah. Jean slowly took the money from her. “Thanks again…” He slowly walked out, feeling her eyes follow him. As soon as he was out, he saw Eren at the stairs. As soon as both boys were on the second floor, Jean stretched and patted stomach. “Aw man, that had to be the best dinner and dessert of my entire life.”

“Yeah, it was pretty good,” Eren said. But Jean saw a frown.

“… I know that look.”

“What look.”

“You think that something was off. Or that there was something depressing there.”

“…” Eren looked at Jean. “What did you think about Marco?”

Jean was taken back by the question. “Hah? Uh, well… he’s kinda cute. And he’s easy-going, which is good for those rabbits.”

“And what about his dad?”

“… A hell lot better than mine.”

“Guess I should have seen that a mile away,” Eren admitted. “But, do you think he’s treating Marco okay?”

“Uh, the guy apologized for having to work, and actually kept his promise on trying to show up? I think that’s a good sign in a relationship.”

“I guess… I was just thinking that Marco looked a little lonely?”

Jean blinked. “Lonely?”

“Only child, father who gets dragged off to work, douche bag assistant, servants who need to work. That just leaves him with his rabbits, right?”

Jean bit his lower lip. Eren had a point. “… Well, I guess he might be… but we can’t say for ourselves, and it’s none of our business.”

Eren’s frown narrowed. “And you’ve gone back to self-centered bastard.”

Jean shrugged. “You planning on hitting the sac now, or are you gonna stay up a bit more?”

“… Stay up. I’m gonna be in the library. You?”

“Same, but I found some paper and I still have my pencil, so I’m just gonna be doing some drawing.”

“Fine.”

-

Eren trudged back to his room. “Damn, I’m tired…” He spent two hours reading books that seemed interesting, most of them classical horror novels. Eren yawned as he finally made it to his door and went in. Closing the door, he quickly took his clothes off and went over to the bed before flopping down. He rolled around a bit, getting under the covers and feeling the softness of the mattress beneath him. “G’ night,” he mumbled to no one in particular.

Just as he was drifting to sleep, he started to hear something. It was like… a groan… a low one… the same as before. Eren forced one eye open. “Mmm, wha?” He was answered by a clap of thunder, which effectively woke him up again as he sat up. “… Okay. Got it. Storm still going on. I’m going to sleep, and I won’t cause any trouble…” He flopped back down, carefully listening to see if he could hear that groaning sound again. Nothing. “Must be more tired than I thought…” He quickly sat back up and fluffed his pillow up a bit. As soon as he was done, Eren laid down again and closed his eyes.

He must have been tired, because he was soon out like a light.

-

Annie peaked into Eren’s room to make sure he was asleep. “Okay, this one’s asleep as well.” She looked at Reiner, who had just checked Jean’s room.

“Good. Let’s go.” She followed him as they made their way back down the stairs, and turned to the stair’s left, opposite of the kitchen hallway. Going further down, they eventually approached the door that led to the basement stairs. “Ready?” After she nodded, Reiner opened the door and both of them descended.

After reaching the bottom of the stairs, they walked a bit further until reaching the lab’s door. Before Reiner had a chance to knock, the door opened, before Kas and Bertholdt came out. “Oh, Reiner, Annie. Have you checked on the guest?”

Reiner nodded. “Yes, both of them are asleep.”

“Lidia?”

“She is as well.”

Kas nodded. “What about Krista and Ymir?”

“I told them to help with the dishes,” Annie interjected. “They won’t come down here unless it’s an emergency.”

“… And Marco?” Annie detected a bit of guilt there.

“He went to bed as soon as he finished dessert. I made sure he took his seizure medicine,” Annie answered.

“Good, good.” Kas turned to Bertholdt, who looked rather pale. “You three may retire for tonight. But tomorrow…” He reached into his pocket and pulled a folded paper. “I need one of you to go to this place and take a few things with you.”

Annie nodded, noting the que. “We’ll see to it.” She took the paper from him and put it into her pocket.

“Thank you.” Kas turned around and closed the door, locking it.

“Let’s go,” Bertholdt said quickly, turning around and started walking at a fast pace.

The three of them were only a few feet down the hallway when Annie someone, a male, started yelling. “N-no! St-stop! I was just knocking my girlfriend around! Sh-she’s crazy! Sh-she wanted it!”

“I had to wire her jaw, and perform surgery. Believe me, it is not a pleasing experience, during or afterwards. As her boyfriend, you should have done everything to keep her safe and comfortable, despite your claims of her ‘wanting it’, which I do not believe.”

_Guess someone found the boyfriend after all._

“Now, I am going to have you pay for your actions. There will be some benefits from it, I’ll assure you.” A sound of a chainsaw followed and gradually got louder.

The three of them went faster when the screaming became more hysterical.

-

Krista peered out of her door and watched as Bertholdt went into his room, looking shaken. Closing the door quickly, she went back to her desk and opened the drawer up, pulling out her diary. She had to get something out of her system. Flipping to a blank page, she started writing.

_I know the doctor’s secret. He loves his research, and is locked up in that lab in the basement. Ever since he brought me here, I’ve heard… things from that place. Horrifying screams. Things I would rather not know of. Ymir and I feign ignorance since we are not allowed down there, while the other three have gone down to… help is really the only word I want to use._

_His son doesn’t know anything, which is the way the doctor wishes to keep it. Truthfully, I think all of the servants do. Marco is a kind, innocent person who loves his father. Just imagine if he knew his father, a man expected to help people, does things I don’t wish to speak of. I doubt he would be able to accept it._

She stopped writing when she heard someone walk down the hall. Alarmed, she quickly shut her diary closed and went to her bed, hiding the book in her pillowcase. Krista curled up in the bed, hoping she would be able to fall asleep soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, I finally got something in the basement started! It's gonna be a while before the actual curse begins though. I wanna work up character relationships before then, so just bear with me.
> 
> Yeah, Marco's half-latino. It's a head cannon of mine, and i wanted to mention it as soon as possible. And he's gonna be really naive and gullible, the dork X3
> 
> Jean in this is a dork who has a cute-boy weakness, and I imagine his bunny-terror-induced screams to be like Markiplier's screaming XD  
> And Marshmallow likes Jeanbo to his displeasure.
> 
> I was trying to decide whether or not to include Ymir and Krista before, and in the end I gave in.
> 
> Oh, and I accidentally got attached to Kas while planning future parts of the story.
> 
>  
> 
> UPDATE!  
> I changed hispanic to latino/a because someone told me that latino/a is the preferred term. I apologize to anyone I offended, and please correct me in the future if I make a mistake similar to this again. - second time I'm putting this in notes, but I just wanted to let you guys know.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY, AN UPDATE!!! I PROMISE THE NEXT ONE WON'T TAKE AS LONG! MY WINTER BREAK WILL BE STARTING NEXT WEEK!! PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES!
> 
> Just as a quick note, I changed hispanic to latino/a because someone on tumblr told me that latino/a is the preferred term. I apologize to anyone I have offended, and please correct me in the future if I make a mistake similar to this again. I don't want to make mistakes on how to refer people's ethnicities/identification!!
> 
> Trigger warning! There is some pretty graphic flashbacks in this chapter, so please, proceed with caution!!

Marco was nestled in bed while hugging his favorite toy rabbit, named Conejito, with his blankets wrapped around him, covering his head. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but it had to be morning. He heard something outside, like raindrops hitting his window. Marco heard something start to move around in his room, but he just curled up some more. It was probably just one of the rabbits starting to move around. After several more minutes, he heard something again, but he loved his bed too much at the moment to pay attention to what it was.

“Surprise!” Unable to pinpoint whose voice it was since he was barely awake when the person spoke, Marco suddenly felt someone pick him up while he was still wrapped up, holding him close. The entire thing effectively woke him up, especially when he felt person who was holding him fall back on the bed, taking him down as well.

“WHAT?!” Marco tried to see who it was, but the blankets had now trapped him while blocking his vision. “Pff!”

Marco squirmed around a bit and heard someone laugh. The blankets were pulled down from his head and he saw Papá smiling at him, “I swear, you’re too cute.” Papá gave Marco his usual good morning kiss on the forehead.

“Papá!” Marco pouted at his father. “That was mean!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help it,” His father laughed while hugging him close. “You just look so adorable when you’re wrapped up in your blankets, with your stuffed bunny while asleep!”

“Papáaaa~” Marco whined and pulled Conejito closer to hide his face, but still allowed the hug. His father laughed a bit more, then he went silent. “… Papá?” Marco peeked up and saw a guilty look on Papá’s face. Marco grew concerned and lowered Conejito from his face. “What’s wrong?”

“… I’m sorry about having to leave during dinner last night,” Papá told him, his voice low. “I really am.”

Marco wiggled a bit closer to Papá. “Papá, it’s fine. I know it was important.”

“But this is the third time this month that this has happened. I don’t want to start pushing you away. It’s bad enough I lost contact with you when you were with your grandparents.”

Marco looked down. After he came back home, he told his father that he felt betrayed after being sent away, and his father started laying off work just to spend more time with him, and was constantly apologizing to him. After a particular incident when Annabelle had injured herself with some kind of chemical solution that Papá was working on but had taken time off to spend time with Marco, Marco felt bad for making his father do so. He knew Annabelle meant a lot to Papá. He had known her before Mamá. Marco also liked her too, so he told Papá it was okay for Papá to go back to work. His father resumed working at a regular pace, but kept apologizing to Marco about sending him away and loosing contact.

As of how the loss in communication occurred in the first place, Marco’s grandparents had a habit of travelling, and changing contact addresses without telling people, including family. After a month of living with them, they had moved to another village, and that’s when communications were lost between them and Papá.

“… I told you before, I forgive you for that… and it isn’t your fault that we lost communication.”

The grim look still didn’t leave his father’s face. “… Marco, Annabelle said that Adrian was following you yesterday, even after you told him to leave you alone. And that she noticed you went to hide in the guests’ bedroom. Is there something going on?”

Marco froze. He didn’t want Papá finding out about what Adrian has been doing. “N-no, it’s nothing. I promise… Cinnamon just bit him,” Marco said, hugging Conejito a bit tighter. Truth was, she _tried_ to bite him, but she ended up crashing into a vase and knocked several things over while running away.

“… You sure? I don’t want you or your bunnies to feel unsafe in your own home. If you just want him to go, then I can arrange that. The only reason why I took him as an assistant is because one of my relatives asked me to. I care more for you though.”

Marco shook his head. “No Papá. You need all the help you can get. And Mrs. Dalca would be upset too.” Mrs. Dalca was both Adrian’s mother and Papá’s cousin. She was one of the few family Papá had left, and Marco didn’t want Papá to get on bad terms with her simply because of him.

He heard a small scoff from his father. “Lately, he hasn’t been all that helpful.” His father let him go and sat up, ruffling his still-messy hair. “He ruined several of my surgeon instruments last night. I need to order some more.”

Marco sat up, still wrapped in his blankets. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Papá turned back to him and smiled. “It was just material goods though.” Just then, Marco felt the weight of the bed shift a bit. Marco turned his head to the window ledge that was next to his bed and saw Cinnamon and Chocolate had jumped down from their little cushions up there. “Looks like your little friends are up,” Papá said and reached to pet Chocolate. Stroking the dark rabbit’s ear, Papá frowned. “Where’s Marshmallow?”

Marco looked around. “Uh, I think she got out of bed before you came in, so she might have gone to see someone-”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Marco jumped at the sudden scream that tore through the place. He looked at his father, who also seemed surprised. “… I’m guessing she must have found where the guest were sleeping.”

“Oh no.” Marco threw off his blankets, placed Conejito down and got off his bed before running out of his room. “Marshmallow!” He heard Papá calling out to him, but he was more worried about Jean.

-

“Uuuugh…” Eren forced his eyes open, blinking them a few times before he finally was officially both awake and alive. He looked at the clock in the room and saw that it was 8:03. He quickly got up and picked up the clothes that were on the floor. Remembering that they were loaned, Eren figured the clothes he was originally wearing, before getting rained on, were dry. He quickly folded the loaned clothes and placed them on the chair before putting his own clothes on. As soon as he did, he went out of the room and opened Jean’s bedroom door up. “Hey, c’mon, get up.”

He saw Jean in his bed, shirtless, with the usual bed-hair that looked like a pile of hay, thus making him even more worthy of the title “horse-face”, sleeping on his stomach, facing away from the door, all while snoring.

“Jean! Get up!” Eren stomped over to the bed and kicked the pole, making the bed shake a bit.

He heard Jean groan a bit before he started sleep-rambling. “Mmm, Mrikasha you’re sho hot, wif dat hourglash shape, shilky shmrooth hair…” Eren grimaced as he heard Jean sleep-kissing his pillow.

Jean had always been attracted to Mikasa, which drove Eren nuts. He would be stuck with Jean, who would talk about how hot his sister was, which was far beyond disturbing. It didn’t help that she was a model for his art class either. Jean had asked her out once, but was turned down. Thankfully, Jean wasn’t a big whiny misogynistic brat over it, but, understandably, he kept crying himself to sleep for the following days. Eren knew that because their bedroom windows were next to each other, and Jean had a horrible habit of leaving his open. The crush sort of died down after a while, but there was still plenty of attraction-residue left. As he was painfully reminded both yesterday in the bathroom and just now.

Eren sighed in frustration and stormed out of Jean’s room. As soon as he did, he heard something coming down the hallway. Looking down, he saw it was Marshmallow. She was hopping along and as soon as she saw Eren, she sprinted to him. “Hey, how are you?” Eren kneeled down and held his hand out to pet her. She went up to him and started rubbing against him, and gave a few licks. Eren couldn’t help but smile at her.

He then heard Jean do some more sleep-smooching, and apparently, so did Marshmallow. She immediately stood up on her hind legs, looking at the open door way.

As soon as Eren saw the reaction, an evil idea popped into his head. “You wanna see Jeanbo? You wanna see Jeanbo? Yes? Yes?” She hopped high into the air, confirming Eren’s thoughts. “Be my guest. Awake the sleeping beauty.” Eren stepped aside, and she darted in, hopping onto Jean’s bed, next to his feet.

Marshmallow hopped her way up to Jean’s pillow, stopping when Jean flipped over. She paused before immediately jumping onto his chest, sniffing his chin. “I luv you, mmm…” Eren saw her head perk up and watched as she began to nuzzle his chin, and to Eren’s amusement, she moved up so that she was able to put her paws on his face, and licked directly on the lips while pressing her face down, as if kissing him. “Mm?” Jean’s eyes started to open, then closed, then opened wide when his brain registered that Marshmallow was there and let out a huge scream that satisfied Eren. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

“Pffff-Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Eren started laughing at Jean’s reaction. “Best reaction in my book,” He managed to say between some of his laughter.

“WHAT THE HELL EREN?!”

Eren’s laughter began to die down a bit, letting him talk. “You wouldn’t get up. Marshmallow wanted to say good morning. So I figured that she could wake you up for me.”

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!” Jean pushed the rabbit off and stood up. And that’s when Eren realized that Jean was more than just shirtless. No signs of either pants or underwear. Not that this was the first time that Eren has actually seen him completely naked, but this was not the time OR place to sleep without pants. The whole thing ended the laughter.

“You were sleeping without pants?!”

“Yeah, so?! It’s not like the first time!”

“You can’t do that in this place!”

“I wasn’t planning on walking around without clothes! It was just for bed!”

Eren groaned and adverted his gaze, praying for the sake of whoever had laundry duty that Jean didn’t decide to jack off in bed last night. “Well, I suggest putting something on.” He then heard someone running down the stairs.

“Marshmallow!”

Eren’s eyes went wide when he recognized Marco’s voice. He looked back at Jean, who also had wide eyes in realizing Marco was going to see him fully exposed. He jumped over to the other side of the bed to get to the bathroom, but was stopped when Marshmallow pounced on him. “WAAH!!” Jean fell over, disappearing from sight with Marshmallow.

Eren turned his head around and saw Marco, still in pajamas, running to him. “Was that Jean just now?”

“Uh, yeah.” Marco turned to the door and was about to go in. “Wait!” Marco froze and looked at him. “He was… in the middle of changing,” Eren lied, not wanting to tell Marco Jean’s habit. “And he was going to put clothes on when I was checking in on let him. That’s how Marshmallow in. So, lemme grab her for you. I’ve seen his butt more than plenty of times.”

_Not that I ever wanted too._

Marco nodded. “Okay.”

Eren quickly slipped in and went to the side of the bed that Jean was hidden behind. He saw Jean face down, frozen solid, while Marshmallow… Eren raised an eyebrow when he saw her. She was sitting on his back between his shoulder blades, kneading the nape of his neck. Eren steadily bended down and picked her up. When she was up against him, she reached down for Jean before bringing her paws up, and repeated the gesture. “… Okay…” He walked back over to Marco. “Here.”

Marco took Marshmallow from Eren and adjusted her in his arms. “I’m sorry about this,” he apologized. “I really am.”

“We know. Right Jean?” There was no answer. “… Jean? That is right, right?”

“Y-yeah, we know.” Jean raised his hand over the bed and waved it. “We’re good.”

Eren then heard several footsteps approaching the hallway. He spotted Marco’s father with Ymir, Reiner, and Bert. “What happened? We heard a scream, is everything alright?” Dr. Bodt asked as he stopped at the doorway.

“Marshmallow went into Jean’s room while he was changing,” Marco explained. “Eren got her out though.”

Dr. Bodt nodded. “I see.” He peeked into the room. “Jean, are you hurt?”

“Aside from my dignity, no.”

Eren raised his eyebrow. “What dignity?” He watched as Jean peaked over the bed while glaring directly at him, only to duck back under when Marshmallow looked in his direction.

Dr. Bodt turned back to Marco. “Marco, go upstairs and get ready for breakfast. Okay?”

“Okay Papá,” Marco chirped and turned around before walking away, taking Marshmallow with him.

“Bertholdt, go help him change.”

“Yes sir,” The tallest boy bowed before walking away as well.

Kas looked at Ymir and Reiner. “I assume you two can take care of things?”

“Yes sir,” Reiner answered.

“Good. I’ll see you all at breakfast then.” Kas walked away, leaving Eren and Jean with the other two.

After a while, Reiner looked at Ymir. “… Was it just me, or was Marshmallow smiling?”

“OH WAIT, WHAT?” Jean looked over his bed in horror.

“She was smiling,” Ymir answered. She then looked at Jean. “… Guessing you were naked in bed?”

Jean sputtered. “A-wh-huh?”

“Please, that bedhead? You weren’t changing, you only got up when she went in,” Ymir sassed. “… And I’m gonna guess that it also means you’re the bottom of the two.”

Both Eren and Jean shouted, “NO!” Eren felt himself turn a red color as he said that.

She shrugged. “Fine. Whatever you two say. Breakfast will be ready in half an hour. Feel free to do whatever till then.” She started walking away. “I’m gonna go check on Krista.”

“Okay,” Reiner answered. He looked back at the boys. “Do you guys need help with anything else?”

“N-nah, we’re good,” Eren said.

“Can I ask if you guys want anything in particular to drink?”

“Well, what’s available?”

Reiner crossed his arms. “We have orange juice, milk, hot chocolate, coffee, and tea.”

Eren’s mind instantly scratched out coffee. He hated bitter stuff, and coffee was just about at the top of the list. How the hell people could actually like it, he had no idea. He wasn’t really in the mood for tea, not now anyway. Now he just had to pick one out of the last three. He knew that it would probably be better to have either the juice or milk, but the hot chocolate was calling out to him. “Uh, well, what does Marco usually have?”

“Hot chocolate. Marco has a sweet tooth, but tries to have some control over it. Unlike his rabbit.”

“… Guess I’ll try the hot chocolate then,” Eren answered.

“Okay. And you?” Reiner looked at Jean when asking.

“I’ll try the hot chocolate as well,” Jean answered.

“Alright, I’ll go let Lidia know then. And don’t pay Ymir any mind.” Reiner walked away with that.

Eren looked back at Jean, who looked back at him. “Do me a favor and close the door before the other rabbits get it,” Jean ordered.

“Fine, just promise to get dressed,” Eren replied and did as Jean told him. Figuring that he could kill some time with books, he headed back to the library. When he went in, he saw that the place where he was reading books was untouched, the stack of books still there, including the one he was halfway done. Sitting down in the chair, he opened the book, searching for where he was before.

-

Bertholdt pulled out knickers that went down to the knees, socks that stopped right beneath the knees, a white shirt, a suit vest, and a thin bow tie from Marco’s wardrobe. Closing the wardrobe door, he glanced over at Marco. “Master Marco, would these be okay with you?” He held up the clothes he was holding for Marco to see.

Marco, who was sitting cross-legged on his alcove bed, tilted his head. “Mmm I guess… Hey, is it going to rain again today?”

“I think so. I don’t think it would be a good idea to play out there today. You might catch a cold. And even if it wasn’t, it’s ridiculously wet outside,” Bertholdt answered him.

A small pout appeared on Marco’s face. “Drat. Guess I’m going to be stuck inside again…”

Bertholdt chewed his lip, feeling pity for the boy. “… I could play chess with you today. I already finished most of my chores, and the rest can wait for tonight.”

Marco’s eyes brightened when he heard that. “Really?”

“Yeah. Let’s just go take your bath and go down to breakfast.”

“Okay!” Marco stood up from his bed and went to the bathroom door on the side of the room. Bertholdt quickly grabbed some underwear for Marco before going in as well, setting the clothes on the bathroom counter. Marco had already removed his pajamas and was pulling his underwear off.

Bertholdt went over to the bathtub and started the water, making sure that it was the right temperature. As soon as it was filled, he quickly filled the pitcher that was kept next to the tub before turning the water off. He turned to Marco. “Okay, tub’s ready.”

“Thank you,” Marco said as he walked over and steadily got in.

Berthodt grabbed the pitcher. “Ready?” After a brief nod from his young master, Bertholdt poured some of the water over his head. After making sure Marco’s hair was wet enough, Bertholdt set the pitcher down before picking up the hair wash and applying a small amount to Marco’s hair. He rubbed his hands through Marco’s hair until there was enough bubbles in the smaller boy’s hair. Making sure to wash all of the bubbles and like-substances out of the hair, Bertholdt grabbed a red soap-scrub that Dr. Bodt brought back yesterday. “Young master, if you could stand up while I wash everything else, it would be helpful.”

“Alright.” Marco stood up so Bertholdt would have an easier time washing. Standing up, Bertholdt began scrubbing Marco’s back, watching as some bubbles started forming. “Sorry for having you do this.”

“No, no it’s fine,” Bertholdt quickly assured him. This was, by far much, better than what he had to do last night in the basement.

\---

_Bertholdt was helping Reiner out with rearranging the sugar flowers when there was a knock at the parlor door. He listened as Reiner went over to the door and opened it. “Annabelle.” Indeed, the redhead was standing there._

_“I need someone to come down with me to the basement.”_

_Bertholdt felt himself froze. He looked at Reiner, remembering that he was the one who had to go last time. He didn’t want him to go again. And he was already down there before, and had a general idea of what was going on. “I’ll do it,” Bertholdt quickly volunteered._

_Reiner looked at him and was about to protest when Annabelle said, “Very well. Follow me.”_

_She turned her back and started walking away. Bertholdt followed, stopping for when Reiner grabbed his hand. “Bert, don’t.” Quickly looking at him, Bertholdt took his hand away and continued following Annabelle. After going down the stairwell and down the hall, Annabelle opened the lab’s door and moved for Bertholdt to enter, who took a deep breathe before entering._

_His nose immediately picked up the smell of blood. But as he expected, that wasn’t the worst part. He saw Dr. Bodt and Adrian standing over a man who was strapped down to an operation table. The same one from before. One of his arms had the skin completely removed, showing the muscles, tendons, and blood vessels. When he came down to get the doctor, only the skin up to the elbow was missing.. The man was trying to shout something, but his mouth was apparently stuffed with a white towel. Probably because the doctor was worried about him being too loud, despite being so far down._

_“I told you before that the scalpels are not toys Adrian. You never use them to wedge them under the teeth to remove them simply because you didn’t want to find the pliers,” The doctor scolded while crossing his arms. “And this is the third time I’ve told you this month.”_

_Adrian shrugged while moving a few things, Bertholdt had no interest in finding out what exactly, around on a small table next to him. “It’s not like I ruined his gums entirely.”_

_Dr. Bodt frowned. “I would suggest you to stop playing around, especially down here.” Annabelle went up to him and tapped his shoulder, prompting him to look at the door. “Bertholdt, thank you for coming down.” He went over to him and pulled him over to an unoccupied operation table that had several bloody cloths, including a shirt and several towels. There were also three surgical scalpels, the blades of which were dented and bloody. “I need you help me clean these up. Just leave them on the counter on the sink’s left.”_

_“Alright,” Bertholdt replied and picked up said things. Bringing them over to the sink that was in the room, Bertholdt filled the sink up with water and added some soap. He started washing the blood out of the shirt in the sink with the soap when he heard the man with the removed skin cry out… well, tried to cry out. He wasn’t able to see anything since he had his back facing the tables, but he was still able to hear it all._

_“Mmm, so the muscles are still functionable, despite forcibly tearing the skin off, much to my surprise.” Bertholdt heard a few things move around. “Now, we just have to see if it was luck of the dumb that his nerves were fine. Annabelle, Adrian, make sure he doesn’t move around while I mark where to cut next.”_

_Bertholdt tried to ignore the man’s sudden muffled wail. He heard something banging up and down after a few seconds. “Shall I get something to restrain his head Doctor?”_

_“I already have the strap right here,” Adrian interrupted Annabelle._

_“Fine. As long as it keeps him from struggling.”_

_Bertholdt was finally getting most of the blood out of the shirt as he heard something like a strap being tightened. The sound was coupled with more wailing. “Ha ha, he looks so pathetic,” Adrian chimed. “Can I do the incision?”_

_“… Fine. Let me just do the guide lines… and don’t even think of cutting his muscles in the process.”_

_Bertholdt tried distracting himself by making sure all of the blood was removed from the shirt before draining the sink of the bloody water and refilling it so that he could clean the towels. Running the water over the shirt to get all of the suds out of it before filling the sink again, he quickly wringed the shirt when he heard the doctor say, “Very well Adrian, proceed. AS I TOLD YOU.”_

_“Yes sir.” Bertholdt heard a muffled shout after that, indicating that Adrian had started cutting. Leaving the shirt open on the counter to dry off, he turned his attention to the towels. As he picked one up, four bloody molars fell out and landed on the floor. Bertholdt jumped back, nearly crying out. Luckily for him, the man on the table gave out another shout, leaving any sound that Bertholdt made unheard. Bertholdt nearly glanced behind him, but stopped himself. He forced himself to look down at the floor, and quickly picked up the molars, feeling that there was still gum tissue on them. Unsure what to do with the teeth, he set them on top of the sink in a small tray._

_Bertholdt started washing the towels when he heard the doctor say, “That’s enough Adrian. You and Annabelle go get the ice box ready for the next addition.” There were a few footsteps that went to another door that lead deeper into the lab. The footsteps ended when the door closed. Suddenly an uneasy silence filled the air in the air, with only the man’s panicked muffled panting._

_“… I find skin to be similar to clothes,” Kas said in a seemingly calm voice. But Bertholdt recognized the tone, and knew that it was anything but calm. “They can keep people warm, and cover up what can be deemed… personal. You can also tell a lot about a person. People can piece themselves with jewelry, as well as tattoo themselves. Whatever they choose to do with their skin is usually based on their beliefs. Skin can show a history of a person.”_

_Bertholdt bit his lower lip, getting anxious. He quickly made sure the towels were clean before setting them aside and picked up a scalpel. “Now, let’s take your girlfriend for example. When she was brought to the hospital, I found several scars on her arms, as well as bruises, which don’t appear on clothes at all. The bruises were recent. But the scars were a few years old. And from what I heard, you have been in a relationship with her for three years.”_

_Bertholdt was carefully washing the scalpel’s blade, trying to block out what he was hearing. “I asked about what state she was found in. The police told me that she was found unconscious in a crop field, with her clothes torn.” Bertholdt finished cleaning the first scalpel when the doctor continued. “Do you know what all of that tells me? It tells me that someone tried to have their way with her, and she refused. So that person beat her instead, thus breaking her jaw. And unfortunately… you seem like the only candidate. After all, when I went to your hometown and informed you of what happened, you were paying more attention to your drink.”_

_… So the doctor found the boyfriend and had him brought here. Bertholdt wasn’t entirely surprised. “Now, I will ask you again, as I did before. Did you beat your girlfriend?”_

_There was suddenly a gasp for air, suggesting that Dr. Bodt removed the towel that was stuffed into the man’s mouth. “N-NO! Y-YOU’RE CRAZY! A-AND EVEN IF I DID BEAT HER, IT’S BECAUSE SHE WAS ASKING FOR IT!”_

_Bertholdt grimaced at that last part. If the man wasn’t doomed when he arrived, he certainly was now. He heard a dissatisfied growl from Dr. Bodt, which was then followed by a sudden gag, probably the towel being stuffed back into its place. “Still sticking with that story. In that case, allow me to proceed.” A sickening rip was then heard in the room, along with a pained wail. The ripping continued on, before finally stopping. “Hmm, didn’t come off the same way the other skin did.”_

_The other door opened, letting Bertholdt know Adrian and Annabelle were back. Finishing with the second scalpel, he heard Adrian talk. “Sir, we have the icebox ready.”_

_“Good. Annabelle, please look at his arm and see if there was any muscles damaged.”_

_“Absolutely.” There were a few footsteps behind him before another pained shout. “It seems that the muscles had remained functional this time as well.”_

_“Mm. In that case, let’s test out an area with more delicate muscles. Let’s say… his face?” There was more wailing, and what sounded like talking. “Hm? What was that?”_

_There was the sound of gasping again. “A-ALRIGHT! I-I WAS KNOCKING HER AROUND! B-BUT IT WAS HER FAULT! SHE-SHE WANTED ME TO DO IT! AND ALL THOSE TIMES BEFORE!!”_

_Bertholdt stopped cleaning the last scalpel for a moment, knowing what was probably going to happen next since the man said that. “... Annabelle. Please go get my saw for me. Adrian, prepare more iceboxes. I’ll wait until both of them are ready.”_

_“Hey, what? N-no! I-I told you I beat her, didn’t I?” There was no response from the three adults, leaving only the sound of footsteps going away and the sound of what Bertholdt guessed was the ice box opening and closing. “H-Hey! You at the sink!” Bertholdt froze while rinsing of the scalpel in hand. “Y-you heard me r-right? T-tell the guy I confessed!”Bertholdt didn’t respond, and instead resumed cleaning the scalpel. “Hey… HEY, I’M TALKING TO YOU!! YOU GODDAMN PIECE OF –”_

_The next part was cut off with a scream. “Do not talk that way to any of my workers.” Bertholdt heard footsteps walking up to him. “I apologize about that Bertholdt.” Bertholdt looked behind him and saw Dr. Bodt standing there. He quickly glanced at the table, and saw not only was the skin from the man’s other forearm missing, but that there was also a huge cut across his nose._

_“I’m fine sir… I finished cleaning the things that you asked me to. Is there anything else?”_

_“No. That would be about it.” The side door open and the assistants came back in. “You can leave now.”_

\---

“Bertholdt?” Bertholdt came out of his train of thoughts when Marco spoke to him. The smaller boy was looking over his shoulder, looking worried. “Are you okay? You look pale.”

“I-I’m fine. Just didn’t get enough sleep.” Technically, that was true. Even after an hour of fixing a few shelves in one of the parlors, he still couldn’t fall asleep for a while after he went to bed.

“I’m sorry. Are you sure you don’t need time off today?”

“Nah, I just need some coffee.”

“… Okay.” There was a noise coming from Marco’s bedroom, like something falling. Bertholdt immediately thought of the rabbits knocking something over. Marco heard it too, and said, “Uh, Bertholdt? Could you go check on the room? I can wash by myself.”

“Sorry, but your father will get pretty mad if he finds out I left you alone while bathing.” There was an incident two years ago when Marco had decided to try bathing by himself, but he ended up having one of his seizures while in the bathtub. Thankfully, Annie was heading to his bedroom when it happened, so she basically saved him from drowning. The doctor was seriously panicked when he found out, and refused to leave for work the whole day. “Just let me help you get dressed, and we can check on the rabbits together.”

“Okay.” After helping Marco wash his back, he gave the soap to Marco, letting him scrub the rest of himself. The boy quickly cleaned himself, before standing up. “Guess I can dry off now.” He then gave a small shiver, and hugged himself. “Cold,” Marco complained as he started chattering his teeth.

“Wait just a moment.” Bertholdt quickly grabbed one of the towels and turned back to Marco and held his hand as he stepped out. Bertholdt wrapped Marco in the towel, watching as the boy stopped shivering. After helping Marco dry off, he went to the counter and picked up the underwear that was there. “Here.” He handed the boy his underwear, adverting his gaze while Marco slipped them on. Bertholdt picked up Marco’s clothes on the counter and helped the boy get them on.

“Now it’s time for the medicine.” Bertholdt went back to the counter and opened a small box and pulled out two bottles. One had the liquid medicine, while the other one had a few pills. Checking which one was the pill medicine first, Bertholdt quickly placed the liquid medicine back. It was too early for the liquid medicine. He quickly opened the pill bottle and held it over Marco’s open hand. “Ready?”

“Yep.” Bertholdt tipped the bottle so that two pills came out and quickly handed Marco a glass of water. “Thank you.” Marco placed the pills in his mouth before taking a huge gulp from the glass.

Bertholdt went back to Marco’s bedroom to see what that noise from before was. As soon as he did, he saw the rabbits pulling the blankets off of Marco’s bed, and had knocked over a few things that were in the chair next to the bed. “AGAIN?”

_This is the third time this week that they all tried stealing the blankets!_

He then saw Cinnamon go back to the bed and started rolling Marco’s pillows out. All part of her everlasting quest for the perfect bunny fort. “Hey, that’s enough.” Bertholdt went over and picked Marshmallow and Chocolate up, the former who started nuzzling him, acting all sweet and innocent. Bertholdt sighed as he went to get Cinnamon, who was starting to arraign her pillow fort on the floor. “C’mon, we’ll give you pillows to play with later.” Hearing her usual disappointed growl, Bertholdt sighed and took all three rabbits to a small play section Marco had made for them.

Making sure they were preoccupied with their toys first, Bertholdt went back to the bed. He quickly fixed the bed sheets and blankets, and placed the pillows back in place. Making sure to pick up the things that were knocked out of the chair, Bertholdt stacked a few books back on top of each other, and finished the stack with one of Marco’s toy bunnies.

The toy rabbit was much smaller than Conejito, and not as old either. If Bertholdt recalled correctly, his father got it for him three years ago, after a long trip from home, along with several other gifts. It was practically impossible to doubt that the doctor loved his son.

Bertholdt had mixed feelings about the doctor. He was basically a serial killer, but as far as Bertholdt knew, all of the people he killed were those who abused others, or intentionally turned a blind eye to such things out of their own desires. Those kind of people did deserve to die… right?

“Um, Bertholdt?”

Bertholdt turned to face Marco. “Yes?”

“… Are you sure you’re okay?”

Bertholdt smiled at him. “I am. Please don’t worry about me.” He looked at the grandfather clock in Marco’s room. “I think breakfast should be done now. Let’s head down now.”

“Okay.” As they were both walking out of the room, Bertholdt heard Cinnamon grunt and thump her feet. He looked down and saw all three bunnies at Marco’s feet. “… You guys better not bother Jean again.” The boy bent down to pick them up. “And Chocolate, don’t try drinking out of Papá’s cup today.”

-

Jean was making sure all of his stuff was together, checking several times to make sure none of the rabbits had decided to sneak into his bag. He had changed into his clothes after being woken up by Marshmallow, and had left the borrowed clothes in a folded pile in the bathroom. He now knew that she was trying to guess how tender his flesh was, thanks to the neck kneading. He shuddered remembering the furry paws on his neck.

Making sure that the bag was closed completely again, Jean went out of the room, scanning the hallway for the rabbits. There were none in sight. Good. He walked down the hallway, stopping in front of the library. He looked in and saw Jaeger sitting in one of the chairs while reading something. “No bunnies in here, right?”

Jaeger’s yellow and green eyes looked up at Jean before turning their attention back to the book. “None that I noticed.”

Jean frowned, not sure if Eren meant ‘No, there are no rabbits’ or ‘I wasn’t checking’, and gave a quick glance around the library. Marshmallow hadn’t come flying at his face, and no Cinnamon either. He figured if Chocolate was somewhere in here, that he wouldn’t bother Jean… truth be told, Chocolate was the one that seemed to cause the least of his problems. He looked back at Eren, and asked, “So what are you reading exactly?”

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

“That classic horror novel where the doctor literally has two different personalities?”

“Yeah.”

“So is it like what Mikasa told us? The doctor made a serum in an effort to repress his quote-on-quote evil urges, serum makes him turn into Hyde, who’s a total sociopath, and Hyde’s persona takes over more and more, and the serum that helps the doctor have some control stops working?”

A sigh came from Eren. “Yep.” Just then, there was a loud growl from Jean’s stomach. Eren stared at him. “How the hell can your stomach growl today?! We were practically stuffed last night!!”

Jean shrugged. “I don’t know, but in all honesty, I don’t really care. Means more room for breakfast.”

“… Are you planning on stuffing yourself again?”

“Yes.”

Eren groaned. “How the hell can people be comfortable when they’re stuffed? It’s like there’s a huge lump in you, and there’s no way to get it out. I’ll never understand either you or Sasha.”

“Being stuffed is when you are made whole.”

Eren made a face. “Do you have any idea how wrong that just sounded?”

“Shut up.” Jean heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Marco and Bertholdt. “Oh, hey.” He then saw the rabbits in Marco’s arm, Marshmallow looking directly at him. Jean, remembering her kneading him, stepped behind the chair Eren was in. “Stay there, rabbit.”

“Hi Jean, hi Eren,” Marco greeted while holding his bunnies a bit closer. “Sorry about Marshmallow earlier.” He looked down at the albino rabbit. “Marshmallow, you don’t sneak up on Jean, okay?” Marshmallow just leaned her head to the side, placing it on Cinnamon, who growled. Marco looked back up at Jean. “I’m sorry about the rabbits, but they don’t want to stay in my room. But I’ll try to make sure they won’t bother you while we’re having breakfast.”

“Uh, thanks,” Jean replied.

He then felt Eren move out of the chair. “So, it’s still raining outside, huh?”

“What?” Jean looked at the windows and saw that, indeed, it was still rain.

“Yeah, it is.” Jean looked back at Marco who was pouting. “Can’t go out to play.” Jean felt his face flush when he saw Marco’s pouty face.

_HE’S SO CUTE~_

Marco’s pout went away, replaced by that cute smile of his. “Breakfast should be done by now, so we can go eat.”

“Okay.”

Jean followed Marco and Bertholdt down to the dining room, Eren behind him. As soon as he was on the ground floor, his nose was hit by the smell of french toast, eggs, ham, sausages, and a few other things.

_It smells so good, I’m gonna cry._

Entering the dinning room, Jean saw Marco set his rabbits down in the same corner they were eating at last night, kneeling next to Annie as she was arraigning some plates that had vegetables on them. “Now, you guys are going to eat here, and don’t go bothering Jean, okay?” As soon as Annie finished with whatever she was doing, Chocolate dove into his share. Marco shook his head at his rabbit and stood up. “Thanks Annie.”

“No thanks necessary,” the blond girl said as she stood up. “Just go take a seat. Your father should be here soon.”

“Where’s Lidia? Is she still working?”

“She’s preparing some food for the guest to take back with them. She already ate, so she’s fine.”

Sitting down in the same seats from last night, Jean saw that their plates were already at the table. The french toast, which was in it’s own individual plate, had a strawberry and crème filling, hence being stuffed, and there was also some strawberry sauce with it. There was also two poached on a second plate, benedict style. The eggs were on top of some ham and toasted bread that looked similar to the french toast in shape, and were with two sausage links on the side. Damn, the eggs sure as hell looked nice. Jean had made several attempts to poach eggs, and it was only on the last try that he made one that was decent.

He then saw the hot chocolate. They were in matching cups, with little chocolate specks still floating around on the surface. He then noticed that there were also slices of white cheese on the plates that the cups were on. Jean pointed to the cheese and asked, “Uh, what’s the cheese for?”

“Hmm?” Marco looked at the cheese Jean was pointing at. “Oh, it’s for the hot chocolate. You can put it in and spoon it out later or just dip it quickly.”

Jean saw Eren lean over. “Never heard of that method.” Jean rolled his eyes, knowing Eren was probably hesitant to do so, being the little picky eater he is. The goober.

“It was something Mamá did a lot. She said hot chocolate with cheese was common in Colombia.”

Eren blinked. “She was Colombian?”

“Yeah. She used to live in Bogota, but her family left when she was 18 years old.”

“Huh. Have you ever been there?”

Marco chuckled nervously. “Oh, no. I would like to though.”

Just when everyone was seated, there was a sudden noise from outside. “WAAH!”

Marco looked at the open door. “Papá? Is that you?” After a while, Dr. Bodt stumbled in, looking a little shocked. Marco raised his eyebrow. “Did you miss the last step again?”

“Yes, but I’m fine.”

“You have to stop running on the stairs!” Marco stated while pouting at his father. “It’s such a bad habit of yours Papá!”

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t want to be late for breakfast.” Kas smiled and walked over to his son and hugged him from behind. “I’d hate to just go off to work without spending some morning time with my adorable son.” Jean saw Marco blush as his father held him. Jean felt a ting of envy towards Marco… but Kas wasn’t wrong about Marco being adorable. Hell, he would vouch him to be more knowledgeable of Marco’s cuteness.

“Doctor.” Jean looked back at the door and saw that the redhead, Annabelle, walking in. “You haven’t shaven or brushed your hair. I though you said you would do it before coming down to eat.”

The doctor looked up from Marco. “… Oops. Ah, I’ll do it later.”

Annabelle stared at him. “That’s what you said three days ago.”

“Well, I’m going to eat with Marco now, and I would much rather be here for the whole meal this time.”

There was a sigh from the redhead. “Alright. But I expect you to clean up later.”

“Alright.”

“BEFORE LEAVING.”

Kas leaned his head back and moaned. “Uhhhh, fiiiine.” As Annabelle turned around, Kas looked back at her and childishly stuck his tongue at her. Jean raised his eyebrow at the behavior. Definitely not what he ever expected from a well-known doctor.

_This is different from last night…_

“By the way, Adrian…” She looked back at Dr. Bodt as she started, and saw him sticking his tongue at her. Stopping her sentence, she raised one of her eyebrows. “Doctor.” As soon as Kas realized she noticed, his eye widened and he put his tongue away, quickly adverting his gaze from her. “Adrian said he would be taking his leave later today. Is there any assignments he needs to finish?”

There was a small sound of Kas clearing his throat. “Other than the ones I gave him earlier this morning, no.”

“Very well. I’ll be working down stairs.”

Kas blinked and looked back at her. “Don’t you want to eat with us?”

“Not right now. Maybe for dinner tonight.” With that, she walked out of the room.

Kas finally released Marco from his hug and smiled at him. “Well, I’m sure you’re hungry.”

“A little.”

“Well, Lidia went all out this morning. There should be enough for everyone.” Kas went over to the same seat he was in last night. “Shall we start?”

“Sure.” Marco nodded and placed some of his cheese in his hot chocolate before he started eating. Jean started with the french toast, savored the sweet strawberry and crème filling, forgetting all of his troubles. After a while, he shifted his attention to the eggs. Breaking the yolk of one of the eggs, he cut some of his sausage and dipped it in the yolk and hollandaise sauce mixture and ate it.

_Damn, this is much better than what I get usually!_

“May I ask you boys how you slept last night?”

Jean looked up at Kas. “Oh, well,” Jean started, “It was okay. I mean, lightning was a little loud, but it’s not like anyone had any control over that.”

“I see. It tends to get pretty stormy out here around this time of year, but you’re right. The lightning was louder than usual.”

Jean nodded and looked at the hot chocolate. He brought it closer and looked at the cheese. “Uh,” He looked at Marco, “So I can just dunk the whole thing in?”

“Yep.”

Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to try, Jean did so, figuring he would just spoon it out like Marco said he could. He glanced over at Eren, who was looking at the cheese with suspicious eyes. “What kind of cheese is this?”

“Queso blanco.”

“… What’s it like?”

“Mmm, it’s sort of like Monterey jack, but a little softer, and it doesn’t exactly melt. Does that help?”

“… A little.” Eren poked the cheese a bit before breaking a small piece off and dropping it in the hot chocolate. Jean rolled his eyes at the sight and ate some more of his french toast.

As he was swallowing, the kitchen door opened suddenly, scaring him as well as making him jump in his chair. Some of the food went down the wrong way, so he had to cough several times to clear his throat up. “How’s the food?” Lidia.

“I-it’s good,” Kas stated, sounding a little surprised from the sudden entrance.

“Perfect!” She then went over to where Jean, Eren and Marco were sitting. “I hope you slept well, Master Marco?” As Jean was expecting, she pinched his cheek while asking, beaming at him.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She nodded and released him, and looked at Jean, and much to his horror, he felt his cheek caught in the death pinch again. “I’m almost done with getting the food for you to take back all packed, okay? Make sure not to let any of it spoil. I also packed some for you to give to any friends if they want some.”

“Got it, we’ll be sure that all of it get’s eaten.”

_Not that Sasha will let it spoil when she finds out we have it._

Lidia finally released Jean and looked at Eren. “And you,” she said and pinched his cheek,  “There should be enough for at least 5 meals for you.”

“F-fine,” Eren managed while wincing.

She let go of him. “Well, I’ll talk to you all later. Let me know if anyone needs anything, like more cheese.” She started humming and walked away.

As soon as she went through the door, Jean saw Marco raise his hand to his cheek, massaging it. There was a low chuckle from Kas. “She pinched your cheek too hard again?”

“A little,” Marco said. “I’m fine though.”

“Good. I suggest drinking some of your hot chocolate now though, before it get’s too cold.”

Marco nodded and grabbed his cup before taking a sip from it. As he was setting it down, Jean spotted a small chocolate mustache on his face.

_Oh god, he is adorable._

“Where is it?” Jean glanced over to Eren, who had his spoon in his hot chocolate. “Where’d it go?!”

Marco also looked at Eren. “Having trouble finding the cheese?”

Eren looked at Marco, looking embarrassed. “No.” He swirled his spoon some more until he finally pulled it out, which had the cheese from before. “See? I’m good.”

Marco smiled at him. “Okay.”

Eren nodded, then looked at the cheese hesitantly, being the little goober he was. He then finally ate the cheese. He didn’t start choking on it, and that usually meant that it didn’t taste bad to him. Eren then took a huge gulp from the mug, which he probably immediately regretted, given by how his tongue immediately hung out. “AH! HOH!!”

“Burned you’re tongue again?” Jean smirked as he asked. Eren had a bad habit of drinking hot drinks in huge gulps, so this wasn’t unusual.

“Shuh uh,” Eren whined.

“Liar.”

As the two boys started bickering, Dr. Bodt got out of his chair and went to Eren. “May I look?” Eren nodded after a moment and held his tongue out. “Mm, doesn’t look serious, but try not to do it again. I’ve had situations where people damaged their tongues permanently due to constant burning and lost their sense of taste.”

Eren stared at the doctor while his tongue was still out, kind of like what Jean’s cat did when she was interrupted with grooming. After a while, Eren put his tongue away. “Got it.”

Kas nodded and went back to his seat and continued eating.

Breakfast continued on for several more minutes, during which Jean finally tried the hot chocolate and cheese, which was pretty good. He glanced over to the rabbits, checking to see if they were going to attack him. All three of them were still eating. Good. He turned his attention back to his eggs, finishing the one he started with earlier. Jean swallowed the last bite and looked at his mug, figuring he could eat that cheese now. He then reached for the mug and spooned his cheese out. It had gotten softer, but it hadn’t really melted. Jean made sure to have it all on his spoon before eating it. It actually tasted better than what he expected.

He was finally finished with his french toast when he heard the kitchen door being slammed open again. Lidia again. “How’s everyone doing?”

“F-fine,” Dr. Bodt answered, sounding surprised again.

_Is this a habit of hers?_

Without warning, she came over to Jean and pinched his cheek. “I have all of your food packed and ready to go,” She said as she gave a small tug. “I’ll make sure it’ll be in the carriage ready for you two boys, okay?”

“Okay,” Jean answered, seriously fearing for his face.

Thankfully, she released him and went over to Reiner, who had eaten all of his eggs and was currently eating his sausage. “Reiner, please help me with moving the stuff to the carriage.”

Reiner quickly finished his sausage before speaking. “Alright.” That would be when Jean noticed that his french toast was still there.

_I want it._

Reiner stood up and grabbed the plate with the french toast. “Here Bert,” He said as he went around and placed it in front of the taller boy.

“Thanks Reiner.” Bertholdt started to eat some of it when he got it.

_DAMMIT!_

Reiner quickly picked his stuff up from the table and followed Lidia to the kitchen. Jean, disappointed he couldn’t get the left-over french toast, drank some of his hot chocolate to fill up that void that was made.

-

Eren had finally finished his breakfast when he heard a knock at the door that led to the front entrance. “Doctor.” Annabelle. Eren glanced over and saw her standing at the door. “You have to get ready to leave soon.”

Eren saw the doctor look at her. “Now?”

“Yes.”

Kas sighed. “Just a minute. Is everyone finished eating?”

“Yep,” Marco answered. There was half a sausage left on his plate, but everyone else did finish. “I’ll just save this for later.”

“Okay then.” Dr. Bodt got up from his chair and looked at the remaining servants. “Can you clear the plates from the table please?”

Annie was the first to stand up after him. “Yes sir.”  Everyone else started to get up as well.

As Eren was getting up, he saw Dr. Bodt walk out of the room, and heard Annabelle say, “If you had cleaned yourself up the other day, we wouldn’t have to worry about it today.”

“I don’t see what’s wrong with having some stubble, and I don’t see the difference between tying back unbrushed with tying back brushed hair.”

“Sir.”

There was a childish whine from the doctor, which Eren mentally added to his list of recent surprises. He was brought out of his state of surprise when he heard Jean yelp. He looked at the taller boy and saw Marshmallow had started hopping towards him. “No, bunny, go away, go away,” Jean stated as he grabbed Eren and used him as a shield.

“Let me go,” Eren ordered in an annoyed tone.

“Stay away bunny,” Jean said as Marshmallow came closer, earning a panicked groan from the boy. Eren then watched as Marshmallow jumped up to the table, turned around to face the boys, then was starting to wiggle, preparing for her final jump to Jean, earning a high-pitched wail from him.

_Why does she like him?_

“Marshmallow, you bad bunny.” Marco quickly picked her up from the table, adding her with the other two rabbits he was holding. “I told you to leave him alone.” Marshmallow made a squeaking noise, sounding disappointed. “Silly girl.” Marco kissed her head, which she responded by nuzzling his cheek. After a small giggle, Marco started walking out of the dining room. Eren followed him out with Jean, who seemed to be relaxing again. Marco was heading towards the stairs when he turned to face them. “I… guess you guys are leaving soon.” His voiced sounded a bit low.

“Y-yeah, guess we are,” Eren answered, rubbing the back of his head. Poor guy was probably going to be lonely for the rest of the day.

“Well, I hope the trip back home will be more pleasant than getting here,” Marco said.

“Same,” Jean answered.

Marco fidgeted a bit before asking, “Do you need help getting your stuff outside?”

Jean shook his head.“Nah, we can handle it. Just need to make sure our bikes are with the carriage before we go.”

“That’s good to hear… I’m sorry you couldn’t be completely comfortable while staying here,” Marco said apologetically to Jean. Clearly referring to the bunnies, who were all settling down in Marco’s arms.

“Aw, well, nothing’s perfect. Don’t worry yourself over it.”

Just then, the front door opened, and Reiner and Lidia both stepped in, Reiner wearing a jacket while Lidia had an umbrella. “Oh, there they are,” Lidia beamed as she went up to Marco and pinched his cheek for the third time that day. “You finished breakfast?”

“Yes Lidia,” Marco answered, forcing a smile.

“Good!” She released him and turned her attention to Eren and Jean, the former who was praying that she wasn’t going to pinch his cheek. “The food I packed for you boys is in the carriage, and Reiner had already placed your bicycles there as well.”

“Alright, thanks,” Eren said before his worst fear was confirmed by the pinching of his cheek.

“Don’t catch a cold while out, okay?”

“Yeees ma’am,” Eren groaned.

_This is Mikasa in her later years._

Thankfully, she released him and said, “Reiner will be taking you boys back. And the doctor should be getting your tip ready now, so I suggest getting ready to go. I’m sure you’re families are worried enough by now.” Lidia then looked at the tall blonde. “Be sure not to ruin your appetite for lunch while you’re out.”

“Yes Lidia,” Reiner answered. As she was leaving, he looked at Eren. “Hope you guys don’t mind one-hour long carriage rides.”

“Better than 4 hour bike ride in the rain,” Eren deadpanned.

There was a low chuckle from the larger boy. “I’ll be waiting.”

Eren and Jean started going up the stairs, leaving Marco with Reiner, the latter who was asking if he needed anything while he was out. Eren quickly went into the room he slept in and grabbed his backpack and quickly made sure he didn’t forget anything. “Okay, looks like I got…” While Eren was searching the last pocket, he found the usual business cards had been moved from their usual position. Eren stared at them before shrugging, choosing not to pay any mind. “Must have been when I took the bag off.”

Quickly putting his jacket into the bag, he pulled it onto his back and went out, seeing that Jean was leaving his room, looking around to make sure no rabbits were coming his way. “I don’t think they’re up here right now,” Eren told him.

“Says the guy who let one in where I was sleeping.”

Eren shrugged and headed to the stair. As he was making his way down, he saw that Marco was still there with Reiner. Eren quickly asked, “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I just want to see Papá off.” Marco smiled as he answered Eren. “He should be coming down soon.”

Eren then heard a set of footsteps run down the stairs. “Doctor, stop running!” Sounded like Annabelle. “You’re going to-”

“AHH!!” There was a sudden thud from the flight of stairs that lead from the third floor to the second floor. Eren wasn’t too sure, but it sounded like the doctor. “Ow…”

“Fall.”

“I’m fine…” There was the sound of groaning as footsteps continued down the stairs. A man with hair that was brushed back and clean-shaven was walking down the stairs, confusing Eren. He didn’t recognize him. Until he saw the eye patch.

“WHAT THE?!” Eren pointed directly at the man, not sure if he was seeing things right. He looked at Jean, who was also frozen with surprise.

“Hmm?” The man looked at Eren and walked up to the boys. “Whatever is the matter?” He _sounded_ like Dr. Bodt, but he didn’t look like him.

Eren’s mouth kept opening and closing. He finally heard Marco say, “You finally shaved off the whole beard off?”

“Yes, not that it was a pleasant experience…” The older man reached for his chin and winced. “Nicked myself in the process.”

_IT IS BODT._

“Perhaps if you shaved yourself more often, you wouldn’t cut yourself as often.” Annabelle appeared right behind the doctor. “And people wouldn’t be so surprised by the difference.”

“I don’t look that different.”

“Yes you do Papá,” Marco said simply.

The doctor looked at his soon in mild surprise. “I do?”

Marco, and the three rabbits, nodded. “Mm-hm.”

The doctor chuckled before ruffling his son’s hair. “At least you can recognize me.” As he moved his hand away, he turned his head to face ERen and Jean. “I hope you boys have a safe trip back. Here’s your tip by the way.” The doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out two checks for them. “Are you two alright with checks?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Eren shrugged.

“Alright, I wasn’t sure if you boys preferred cash or not. Here you go.”

He handed the two checks to Eren, who gave one of them to Jean. “Thanks.”

Kas smiled at the both of them before looking at Reiner. “Be sure to be back before nightfall, Reiner.”

“Yes sir. By the way, Annie said she was planning on taking one of the carriages later for her errand you asked us to do today.”

“That’s fine.” Kas turned back to Marco. “Be sure to keep your rabbits out of the parlors today, and I want you to do some work on your math.”

“But Papá, I hate math,” Marco complained.

“I know, but you need to do it before tomorrow. Ms. Jordan is swinging by, and she wants you to have it done. Krista can help if you have a problem.”

“Okay,” Marco answered while pouting bit.

“That’s a good boy,” Kas said while smiling.

“Doctor.” Annabelle opened the door and held an umbrella over her. “Your carriage.”

Kas sighed. “Well, I need to go Marco. I’ll be back tonight though.” The doctor hugged Marco from the side and quickly kissed his cheek. “See you and your bunnies later.”

“Okay,” Marco replied. His father then went over to Annabelle, and the two of them went outside.

“You two ready?”

Eren turned to face Reiner. “Yeah.”

“Okay, just follow me then.” Just as they were heading out, Eren saw a white blur run in front of the door. “Hey, what the… Marshmallow?”

Eren leaned his head to the side to see what was sitting at the door. Marshmallow was sitting there, making a small distressed sound. She then hopped over to Jean. “Ah, stay away!” She didn’t stop. Marshmallow came up to his pants and pawed at them. She continued making distressed sounds, all while looking up at Jean.

“Marshmallow, cut that out girl.” Marco went around Jean and picked her up. As he was, she reached for Jean, literally giving him doe eyes.

“Sorry about her again,” Marco apologized for the umpteenth time.

“N-no apology needed,” Jean stuttered. “So, I guess this is bye?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Marco moved out of the way. “Have a nice trip.”

“Thanks.” Finally, all three people made it out. It wasn’t raining as hard as yesterday, but the ground was certainly muddier than before, as well as a little flooded.

_Yeah, we need that carriage._

Eren saw Reiner opening one of the carriage doors for him and Jean. As Eren was getting on, he saw another carriage in the distance that was going away. Must be the doctor. Eren sat down before Jean sat across from him. He saw several boxes on the seats as well, with a little note on them labeled ‘food’, which Eren’s mind immediately registered as the stuff Lidia made for them. Reiner closed the door before Eren felt the carriage start to move.

Both of them stared out of the carriage window and saw Marco looking out the front door before closing it, just as the carriage turned so the mansion started to move out of view. Eren looked at Jean. “You think he’s gonna be okay?”

“… Seems like people really care for him, so, yeah.” Jean leaned back as he answered.

After several minutes, Jean reached into his pocket. “How much did that guy give for a tip again?” Jean pulled out the check that he had folded up out of his pocket.

Eren groaned. “Why am I not surpri-?”

“WHAT?! THIS CAN’T BE RIGHT!”

Eren jumped at Jean’s sudden outburst. “What the hell?”

Jean looked at Eren. “… Eren, how much did you get?”

“I dunno.” Eren reached into his pocket and pulled his own check out. “Why are you asking?” As he took a careful look at the check, he saw that the entire tip was $500 dollars total. Eren looked up and stared at Jean before showing him. Jean showed his to Eren, showing that he also had $500 for his tip. Eren could have sworn he saw both of their souls slip out of their mouths as they stared into space in shock for the rest of the ride.

-

“So, how long are you gonna be gone again?”

Annie, who was all dressed in black, was adjusting her jacket before answering Ymir. “Three hours.”

“Running another ‘errand’ for good ol’ doc again?”

Annie glanced at Ymir. “… No comment.”

Ymir sighed, having heard that before. “Right, because the ‘donation’ boxes already took care of that part.” Ymir pointed to the ice boxes that Annie brought up earlier.

“Don’t go sticking your nose into it.”

Ymir was about to say something else when they both heard the least liked person in the place. “Oh Marco, where are you?”

Ymir groaned. “Augh, can I put him in one of the boxes?!”

“I wish,” Annie answered. She went to the stairs, and Ymir decided to follow her. Maybe they could sew his mouth shut.

As both girls were approaching the second floor, Ymir heard the last thing she wanted to hear. “Oh, there you are~” There was then footsteps going further in the direction of the library.

Both girls started running up the stairs and quickly went to the library. “… Too round for a boy. Sharper features are always better.”

Ymir looked at Annie, who looked back at her and had a frown on her face. They then looked around one of the bookcases and saw Adrian cornering Marco against the wall. “What are you doing?!” Annie angrily approached Adrian, who turned around to face her, allowing her to see that Marco had some ink smudged on his face.

“Annie, darling, how are you?” Adrian flashed that sickening smile of his while waving a pen in his hand. “And you have lovely Ymir with you as well.” Ymir felt the urge to puke as he was calling them ‘darling’ and ‘lovely’, as if they were pets.

Annie furrowed her brows, clearly disgusted as well. “Do not call either one of us darling or lovely. You have a college to get to, so I suggest you get on your merry way. And don’t think I won’t tell the doctor about this.”

“Playing hard to get as usual I see,” Adrian chimed, making Annie frown even more. “Alas, I will take my leave.” He went pass Annie and Ymir, both of them watching him like vultures, filled with distain. “And I’ll see you later Marco~”

Ymir felt herself shudder at the tone of his voice. God, he’s been creepier than normal for the past month, and it made it no better that the creepiness was focused on Marco. She stuck her tongue out in the direction he went in while baring her top set of teeth. After a few seconds, she finally heard the front door open and close, signaling he had finally left. Ymir turned back to Marco. “What happened?”

“N-nothing really,” Marco said as he tried to rub off the ink on his face. Annie leaned in and took a closer look.

“… Is this permanent ink?”

“I-I don’t know,” Marco admitted weakly.

Annie looked at Ymir. “Help him wash it off.”

“Okay.”

Annie turned back to Marco. “I’ll be back in three hours, but don’t worry if I take longer than that, given the weather. And be sure to take your medicine during lunch.” She then walked towards the library exit.

Ymir went up to Marco. “Come on Marco.” Marco nodded after a moment and followed Ymir out of the libary. Going to his bedroom, Ymir went go get the rubbing alcohol out of the medical supplies Dr. Bodt insisted in keeping there. “Okay, let’s see if we can wash that ink off with just soap and water before we try the rubbing alcohol.” Marco nodded again and followed Ymir into the bathroom. After Ymir got the wash towel and the soap, she tried to get the ink off Marco’s face. It barely worked. “It’s permanent… hold on.” Ymir twisted the cap of the rubbing alcohol off before applying some to another towel. It took a while to get all of the ink off, and when she was done, she used the first towel to make sure it was all gone. “There you go.”

“Thank you Ymir.” Marco straightened his vest a bit, still looking a bit shaken.

Ymir held both of his shoulders. “You need to tell your dad about what’s going on with Adrian, Marco. You know your dad cares for you. He won’t judge you. And to put it quite frankly,” Ymir stared him straight into the eye before she stated the last part. “NO ONE WILL MIND IF ADRIAN LEAVES. WE MIGHT EVEN THROW A PARTY.”

“B-but Mrs. Dalca asked Papá to let Adrian work for him. And Papá needs all the help he can get.”

“That cousin of his? I doubt he could care less if she came here whooping up and down about getting that spoiled rat hired again.” She had seen Adrian’s mother before, and she wasn’t on the ‘want-to-see-again’ list. Kept hinting at her disappointment about the doc’s choice of who he married simply because the late-mom wasn’t white. Adrian hadn’t made any racist statements yet, but that was probably so that he wouldn’t get the boot.

Ymir saw Marco chew his lip, clearly still hesitant about the situation. Ymir sighed and let go of his shoulders. This boy was too good for his own sake. “Forget I said anything.”

“… It’ll be over soon.” Marco headed to his bedroom, and Ymir followed him. He went over to his alcove bed and started petting his rabbits. The living ones, not the stuffed toys. For once, they weren’t running around, causing trouble. Instead, they were sitting on his bed. “Hey buddies, you sick of this rain?” There was the usual growl from Cinnamon. “Yeah, me too.” Marco seemed to be relaxing a bit as he was petting them. That’s good.

Ymir then heard a small whine from one of the rabbits. Sounded like Marshmallow. She looked at the white rabbit and saw that she was looking at the window, and her ears were flattened down and was making a sighing like sound. Ymir raised an eyebrow.  She had never seen Marshmallow act like this before. “Is Marshmallow sick?”

“Huh?” Marco looked at Ymir. “No, I don’t think so…”

“Sooo why is she acting weird?”

“I think she’s upset Jean left,” Marco said as he petted her.

Ymir blanked out for a moment when she heard that. “Horse face you mean?”

“Yeah, she tried to keep him from leaving.”

Ymir stared at the rabbit. Marshmallow was always more of the needy kind, but to actually miss a person? That was really surprising. Marshmallow made another sad bunny sigh, leaning into Marco’s hand as he petted her.

_She must have really liked what she saw in the bedroom this morning. Not that I would be interested._

Ymir then heard a knock at the door. She looked over and saw Bertholdt peeking in. “Master Marco, I found your math books.”

Marco looked over at Bertholdt. “Oh, thank you.”

Ymir raised her eyebrow. He usually kept his math books in the family drawing room down the hall. “Where were they?”

Bertholdt glanced at Ymir before shifting his gaze away. “… They were downstairs.”

Downstairs. Marco never did his math or other study activities in the rooms downstairs, so there was no way he would have left them there. Then her mind clicked. Adrian hid them. He did this the last time he stayed over night, but with a novel Marco was reading.

_Note to self: BURN ALL OF ADRIAN’S BOOKS WHEN HE COMES BACK HERE._

Ymir watched as Bertholdt gave Marco his books. “Here.”

“Thank you.” Marco was opening the textbook up when Marshmallow laid herself on it, still making small bunny sounds of sadness. “Aw, poor baby.” He started petting her again, but she continued sighing. “I’m sorry, but Jean had to go home. And I really need to get started on my math, so please get off.” Marco tried to move her off the open pages, but Marshmallow just hopped back to the book. He tried again, but she just went back, still sighing.

Bertholdt stared at the rabbit then at Ymir, confused. “She’s upset horse-face left.” She slowly pointed her thumb to the door. “Should I go grab some food for her? See if it cheers her up?”

Marco looked at her and nodded. “Sure. And maybe some for the other two if you can.”

Ymir left and headed down to the kitchen. She saw that Lidia was already working on lunch. Quickly slipping into the storage room, she grabbed a few carrots, some berries, and mint leaves.

She was heading back out when she heard Krista. “Come on, hurry up… burn faster” Ymir raised an eyebrow and went to where the oven was and saw Krista standing there, prodding the fire with one of the iron pokes. This wasn’t an unusual sight.

“Burning another diary entry?”

Krista jumped and looked at Ymir. “Don’t scare me like that Ymir!”

“Sorry. Came down for some rabbit snacks.” She walked up to Krista and looked at the oven’s fire. She spotted a piece of paper that was slowly burning, the writing still visible. “Don’t think the fire’s strong enough.” She went over to the woodpile and brought a few more pieces of wood over. Ymir quickly placed them in the fire, on top of the paper. “There. That should do it for now.”

“… Thank you.” Krista moved away from the fireplace. Ymir watched her as she walked away. She had been part of the main staff for about two years now, and still hadn’t gone inside the lab more than once. Just like her. And they didn’t have to worry about being requested down there to help. She wasn’t sure why, but that was more than fine with her. Not wanting to dwell, she quickly left the kitchen, hoping that the paper Krista wanted the burn would be ash by the time Lidia decided to clean the oven out.

-

Annie finally reached her first destination for her errand. She quickly got off her carriage and adjusted her hood, quickly got the first set of iceboxes out and took them with her. Walking up to the door of the small building she came in front off, she knocked several times before it finally opened. “Dr. Benjamin.”

“Oh, Leonhart.” The doctor moved so she could come in.

“The doctor said that there was several people in need for some transplants, right?”

“Yes. Several children were in a house fire. They got burned pretty badly. And then there’s two new patients who need new kidneys. And I’m running low on blood for transfusion.”

Annie nodded and handed him the iceboxes. “Everything should be in there. The blood is supposed to be type O, negative.”

Dr. Benjamin took the box to a small room and closed the door. He was putting the organs in the storage space so that they would be used later. He eventually came back out. “Please give my thanks to the doctor. I don’t know what I would do if he wasn’t so generous to give me transplants from the hospital.”

“Right.”

“Be safe on your trip back.”

Annie nodded and went back to her carriage. She looked back at the small clinic and snapped the reigns. “… From the hospital. Right.”

The doctor habits of experimentation in the basement always resulted in the subject being dead. Despite the fact that only the doctor, his assistants, her, Reiner, and Bertholdt went down there, the doctor made sure to dispose of the parts he had no need or interest in keeping. He had several methods of how though. If the corpse still had tissue or organs that could be used for transplants, then the doctor harvested them and usually had his servants take them to small clinics that didn’t have the means to get as much donors as the ones he worked at.

As of for the unusable parts… well, there were several methods.

After getting the horses to go down the right path, Annie was soon in a deep part of the forest. Time to do the last part of the errand. She quickly got off the driver seat and opened the carrier up and pulled out the boxes she hid there. Quickly tying the horses to a nearby tree, Annie ran deeper in the woods before setting the boxes down. Annie took the key for them out and unlocked them, and her nose was quickly hit by the scent of blood.

This was one of the means of disposal for unusable remains. Take the body parts as far away as possible, to an isolated place where people would not be looking, where the parts were to be eaten by the animals. Make it look like the person died from an animal attack or natural accident and have people think that the missing body parts were eaten while the remaining parts were carried off to save them for later. That’s if the bodies were ever found by people.

She hauled out the parts that were in the first box and began staging. Finding a log that was rotten and had fungus growing as well as several insects swarming inside it, she began placing the remains there.

The last piece she pulled out was a partial head remain. Upper right part. Seemed like it was male judging by the brow ridge and forehead. Part of Annie wondered if it was the man she heard last night, or if it was the guy from last week.

\---

_Annie was heading down to the basement to get the doctor. Chocolate had been eating more sweets than usual, and Marco was seriously panicking over his bunny. When she got to the laboratory door, she opened it without knocking. “Doctor.”_

_She saw the doctor, who was standing over one of the tables, spin around to face the door, surprised. When he saw her, he frowned. “Annie! I’ve told you before, please knock before coming in!”_

_“I apologize, but it’s your son. Chocolate managed to get into the dessert pantry, and Marco’s worried about him since he found that Chocolate ate some chocolate. He wants you to take a look.”_

_Dr. Bodt’s frown disappeared when she explained. “He is…” He looked down before saying, “I’ll be there soon.” He looked over at the door for the deeper in the basement. “Annabelle? Are you there?”_

_There was the sound of approaching footsteps be door opened and Annabelle walked in. “Yes sir?”_

_“I need to go upstairs. Please continue with the procedure for me until I come back down… unless he expires before then.”_

_Annabelle nodded. “Understood.” Annie saw him hand her a needle and moved from the table. Annie then saw a man strapped down, with most of his face covered up while his mouth was being held open, and saw that the rest of his body had several puncture marks._

_As Annie and the doctor were leaving, Annie heard a shout from whoever the man was. “… May I ask what he did?”_

_Dr. Bodt continued walking before answering. “He and his wife were beating two children, that they claimed were adopted, but were more than likely bought for work. They used iron rods, and eventually the beatings caused internal bleeding. The neighbor caught them and brought both of the children to the hospital… but they both died after an hour. Unfortunately, the couple found loop holes that helped them escape conviction.”_

_Another set of abusive parents. Annie felt no sympathy for them whatsoever. “Where’s the wife?”_

_“She was already taken care of.”_

_Meaning that she was the first of the two to die._

_She followed the doctor up the stairwell. As soon as they were on the first floor, the doctor asked, “Where is Marco?”_

_“His bathroom.”_

_Dr. Bodt quickly started running up the stairs and tripped over several times before finally reaching the fourth floor. He quickly ran to Marco’s room and went in. “I’m sorry I took so long Marco. How much did your rabbit eat?”_

_“He managed to eat a whole chocolate bar, one of the large ones. I’m really worried.”_

_“Alright, let me see him.” There was some rustling going on in the bathroom as Annie started walking to the door. “Well, I can give him some medicine just in case, but let’s be sure to give him a lot of water and vegetables to get the sweets out of him. And let me know if he shows signs of diarrhea, vomiting, agitation or anything else that signifies that he’s sick or digestive system is messed up.”_

_“Okay, thank you Papá.”_

_“Of course, Chocolate’s part of the family.” There was the sound of Cinnamon growling and thumping her feet. “And Cinnamon… Oof! And Marshmallow of course… are you sure she didn’t eat any sweets?”_

_“”I’m sure, she spent her time in the teacup sleeping.”_

_Annie looked into the bathroom and saw Marco siting with his father, who was holding Chocolate in his hands while Marshmallow was on his head and Cinnamon was looking at the doctor with her usual grumpy face. It looked like a perfect family relationship._

_Annie quickly turned around and left._

\---

Annie finished with placing the body parts in the log before checking the boxes to see if there was anything she missed. Nothing. Good. She quickly closed the boxes and placed them back on the carriage.

Never stay in the place where the body parts were hidden. Too much chance of being linked to the body if it was found. Plus there were bears in the area that were just getting out of hibernation, and maybe a wolf pack. They probably wouldn’t be interested in eating her, but the horses were a different story.

As soon as she got on the driver seat, she saw that several crows had already started investigating the log. Just as expected. She quickly snapped the reigns and the horses took off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Marshmallow, her darling Jeanbo had been whisked away by the cruel hand of fate! Jean u dummy!
> 
> Having hot chocolate and cheese with each other is something my grandparents do a lot. They live in Colombia, but I haven't seen them in years. I really need to brush up on spanish.
> 
> Also, I'm making a few sketches of what Kas, Annabelle, Carmela, and Adrian look like. Would anyone be interested in seeing them?
> 
> Please leave comments!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update, yay! I hope all of you had great holidays!
> 
> So, Marco won't be seen in this chapter. I wanted to focus on Jean and Eren's home life for a while. Next chapter will be focusing on Marco though.
> 
> I managed to get the sketches done, although I don't think I did Carmela justice though QAQ They will be shown before the notes at the end.

Eren was still staring into space in shock of the large tip when the carriage stopped and then Reiner opened the door. “Hey, we’re here.”

“Huh?” Eren looked out and saw that he was in front of his house, and that it was just cloudy weather.

“This is the right place, right? Dr. Bodt had your dad’s address, and told me this morning to bring you guys here.”

“Yeah, yeah it is,” Eren answered and finally put his check away. He stood up and smacked Jean’s knee, who was just coming back to reality, just before crawling out of the carriage. “Come on, we need to get o-”

“EREN! JEAN!”

Upon hearing their name being called out, Eren stopped dead in his tracks right there. Looking at the front door, he saw that his mom and Jean’s mom was coming out of the house. Eren and Jean quickly exchanged glances, both realizing how much trouble they were in.

 “Where were you two?!” Eren’s mom went up to them and tugged their ears, earning two ‘ow’s from them. “You had all of us worried sick! Why didn’t either one of you call?!”

“Mom, we can explain,” Eren mustered as he winced before his mom let him and Jean go

“You boys were out all night, so you better have a good explanation,” Mrs. Kirschtein said before looking at Jean and pinched his cheek. “Jeanbo, are either one of you hurt? Sick?” Before Jean could answer, she continued on. “Lily started crying because she thought both of you had died.”

“Carla? What’s going on?” Eren then saw his father come out of the house. “The boys are finally back?” He went up to her and saw Reiner. “… Oh, Reiner Braun, right?”

Carla looked at him. “You know him?”

“He works with Dr. Bodt. I met him over a year ago when Dr. Bodt was visiting the local hospital to perform a surgery. He came by to drop a few things off.”

“Yep, that’s me. Your kids were caught in a rainstorm in the countryside and accidentally took a wrong turn, which ironically brought them to Dr. Bodt’s place instead of the hospital. The phone over there has been out for a while, so I’m afraid it was practically impossible to call home, and unfortunately the storm continued into the night, so they had to stay over.”

Carla raised an eyebrow. “That’s all?”

Reiner nodded. “That’s all.”

“Oh thank god,” Carla said in relief.

Mrs. Kirschtein looked at Reiner and asked, “Did they get lunch? Dinner? Jeanb-Jean didn’t get to have breakfast yesterday.”

“Yes, the had something to eat. Our chief actually gave them a few things to eat for the next few days-”

Reiner was cut off by the sudden shouts from the house, second floor. “MIKASA, IT’S JEAN AND YOUR BRO!!” Sounded like Sasha. That spelled bad news.

After a few seconds, Mikasa came out of the house with Sasha. “Eren!! Where were you?”

“Mika-MFF!” Before he knew it, Mikasa took out a buttered biscuit from behind and shoved it into his mouth.

“Where were you? Did you eat enough?” Eren tried to tell her to stop with the biscuit, but was muffled by it instead.

“Mikasa, it’s fine,” Eren’s dad started as he tied to get her to step back from Eren. “They were just caught in the storm and had to stay overnight someplace else. They already ate breakfast.”

Sasha, who was standing behind Mikasa, slipped between her and Eren and started eating the biscuit right there. “Mm, goo’ ‘ischut mish ‘Aeger.” Eren finally broke away from the biscuit and swallowed the part that was still in his mouth. He watched as Sasha was eating the biscuit before glancing at Jean. “Sho it wash ‘oysh night out?”

“Pretty much.” Eren stared at Jean, having no idea how Jean understood anything she said while eating.

She finished the biscuit and started sniffing Jean. “Mm?” There were a few more sniffs and Eren watched as Jean started to panic a bit.

_This is the cupcake all over again!!_

“I smell… something like…” She sniffed Jean a few more times before glaring at him. “YOU ATE A RISSOTO?!” She seized his collar and pulled him close. “WITHOUT ME?! WHAT ELSE DID YOU TWO HAVE?! YOU DID BRING ME SOME FOOD THIS TIME THOUGH, RIGHT?”

“YES! YES WE DID! WE DID! IT’S IN THE CARRIAGE!! PLEASE DON’T EAT ME!!”

As soon as those words left Jean’s mouth, Sasha released him and barreled into the carriage. After a moment, she let out a laugh from inside. “A HWA HA HA HA HA! YEEESS, I CAN SMELL ALL OF IT!!”

Eren heard a strained “Uuh,” and looked at Reiner, who had raised an eyebrow at the scene… or brow ridge really. Guy had some pretty thin eyebrows.

“You don’t want to know… I don’t want to know, but I do,” Eren said simply for an explanation.

Just then, a cackling Sasha jumped out of the carriage and carried all of the food inside, all while running. Jean leaned close to Eren. “… I think that’s a record for how much she could carry without dropping anything,” he whispered to him.

“Yeah…”

“Here.” There was a sudden thud next to Eren and he realized Reiner had gotten their bikes off the carriage. “That’s about everything, right?”

“Yeah, given someone already took the food,” Eren answered while taking another glance at the house.

“Alright then.”

“Thank you for bringing our boys back in one piece,” Grisha told Reiner, “And please give my thanks to the doctor as well.”

“Yes sir.” Reiner got back on the carriage’s driver seat. “Take care of yourselves.” He snapped the reins and with that, the horses took off.

As soon as the carriage was gone from view, Eren felt his ear being clipped again and winced, before realizing that his mother was dragging him and Jean to the house. “Ow! Mom, Let go!”

“Not until both of you give Lily an apology!” As she brought them into the house, Eren saw Sasha at the dining table with Jean’s younger – and chubby, like he used to be like when he was younger - siblings: Lily, who was 6 years old and currently had red eyes – yeah, they really had to apologize, Lance, a 9 year old who was already sporting glasses, and Emma, a 7 year old and constantly wore a toy tiara Jean got her last year.

All three siblings turned their heads to the door. As soon as Lily spotted both Eren and Jean, a small whine came from her as her eyes watered up. “JEAN! EREN!” She ran up to them as Carla released them. “I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WERE NEVER COMING HOME!!” Lily then clung onto Jean’s let as she continued sobbing.

“Oh sweetie,” Jean’s mother cooed as she came in and looked at the crying girl, “Are you still sad?”

“NO!! THESE ARE TEARS OF HAPPINESS NOW!! THESE ARE TEARS OF HAPPINESS!” Lily looked up at Jean. “PROMISE ME YOU’LL NEVER DIE AGAIN!!”

“Lily, we didn’t die.” Eren shot Jean a disapproving look before smacking the back of his head. “Yes, we promise never to die again.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

A smile broke out on the little girl’s face as she heard Jean’s reply. “YAY!!” She squeezed Jean some more in glee.

“Aww, how cute.” Sasha was beaming from the table as she was opening one of the boxes up. As she looked into the box, her eyes widened up. “This… this is… risotto with… with…” Eren started taking baby steps away from the scene when he felt Sasha tackle him. “THANK YOU FOR GETTING STUCK SOMEWHERE AND BRINGING ME THIS GLORIOUS FOOD!!” Eren felt her arms wrap around his neck, making him wince at the tight grip.

“Sasha, I… need air… air!”

“Whoop, sorry.” She released him and went back to the boxes. “I can take this home with me right?”

“Yes,” Eren groaned as he massaged his neck.

“Hey! Leave me some!!” Emma pouted at Sasha and crossed her arms.

“Don’t worry your highness, I shall leave you plenty!” Sasha bowed to the little girl. “And I think there’s more I can afford to take home.”

“Good.” She then looked at Jean. “So where were you guys?”

“In the country side.”

“A farm?”

“No. Doctor’s place.”

Emma nodded before poking Jean’s backpack. “Got anything for us? Huh? What’s this?” She reached into his pocket and pulled out his check. As she looked at it, a confused look appeared on her face. “You got paid 500 dolls?”

“Wha-No!” Jean snatched it from her.

Eren saw his dad usher Mikasa before going over to him and Jean. “How was Dr. Bodt by the way?”

“He was… a pretty decent guy.”

“You both were nice to him, right?”

“Yes dad,” Eren groaned out. “But I think he made a mistake with giving us our tips.” He pulled his check out again and looked at the number.

“Let me guess, the tip is something over two hundred dollars.” Before Eren knew it, everyone in the room was staring at him. “He’s a very generous tipper. When he was over at the hospital, he kept giving people with lower wages large tips. The hospital director tried to get him to stop, but he kept at it. He even gave money to patients who needed it.”

Eren stared in surprise before replying. “Oh… I see…”

Emma tugged on Jean’s clothes. “You’re gonna buy me presents with the money, right?”

Jean glared at her. “Why should I?”

“Hey, buy me stuff too!” Lance went up to Jean and glomped his left leg before trying to get the check out of his pocket. “Or you can just give it to me.”

“NO!!” Jean quickly snatched his check out of his pocket and held it high above his head. Both Lance and Emma pouted before they started climbing him. “LET GO!!”

“Wait for me,” Lily ordered before she joined her brother and sister. She then gave Jean a set of her too-cute puppy eyes. “Pwease Jean.”

Jean let out a groan as his younger siblings continued their climb. “Someone help~” Mikasa went over to him and took all three siblings off and held them. Jean blushed slightly and squeaked at her, “Thank you.”

“Hm.” She merely adjusted the three children in her arms. “So, what are you guys going to do with the checks.”

Before either one of the boys answered, Carla took Jean’s check before going over to Eren. “Bank it. There’s no need to use all of it right now.” With that, she took the check from him and handed Jean’s to Mrs. Kirschtein. “Or use it to pay for each other birthday presents.”

“NO!” Eren and Jean glared at each other as soon as they said that in unison. There was no way Eren was going to spend $500 on a present for horseface, of all people.

“Well,” Mrs. Kirschtein started as she took Lily from Mikasa. “We better take our leave.”

“But Moom~” Emma threw her head back as she whined. “I wanna stay!!”

“Maybe later this week, Emma-sweetie.” Mrs. Kirschtein adjusted Lily before going over to Sasha. “Can you hand me some of the boxes dear Sasha?”

“Sure.” Sasha gave Mrs. Kirschtein some of the boxes after checking the small labels that were apparently on them.

“Thank you.” She then turned to the rest of her children. “Come on, time for us to get going.”

“Okay.” Jean started following her out the door as Emma and Lance clung to his leg. “Guys, let go. I mean it.”

“NOPE!” They both laughed as Jean – somehow – managed to follow his mom out.

Eren started stretching his neck when he felt Sasha poke him. “I’m gonna stay over tonight for studying. So you wanna join us?”

“Not like I have anything better to do.” Eren raised his arms above his head as he followed both girls.

-

Jean finally got inside of his house when he heard Jeanbo from upstairs. “Jeanbo missed you too,” Emma said as she hugged his leg. “She kept meowing and meowing and meowing.”

“Didn’t figure that would happen,” Jean muttered. As he went to the stairs, he saw Jeanbo coming down, still meowing – if the sound that cats made could actually be called that. It didn’t sound anything like ‘meow’, more like ‘Aur’, but who was he to judge. “Hey cat.” Jeanbo meowed at him a few more times before finally reaching Jean and nudged him before meowing even louder. Jean gave a resigning sigh and picked her up. “Oof, what you guys feed her, rocks?”

“No silly,” Lance announced before running up the stairs. “Eren!” Jean’s back!” As soon as Lance made the announcement, Eren – the dog – appeared at the top of the stairs while running… before accidentally slipping off the last step. Eren, a little startled from the sudden fall, shook himself before trotting up to Jean. Jeanbo looked down at the dog and hissed at him. Jeanbo was always a bit mean towards the little guy. Eren whimpered in fear of the cat. “Bad Jeanbo.” Lance came back down the stairs and crossed his arms at the cat. “Don’t be nasty to Eren.”

Jean felt Eren snuggle against his leg, making him sigh. “Hey buddy.” Jean handed the cat to Lance and picked up the small black dog. “You miss me?” Eren barked at him before snuggling against his neck. “Yeah, missed you too.”

“Jeanbo?” Jean turned to look at his mom. “Are you sure you’re fine?”

“Yeah mom. Totally.” Jean adjusted Eren in his arms while answering.

“Okay. I have lunch in the oven. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.” She started heading to the kitchen. “We’ll probably have some of the food you brought back for dinner later, okay?”

“Sounds fine. I’ll be in my room.”

“Alright.”

Jean nodded before going up the stairs, taking Eren with him. As soon as he reached his room, Jean went to his bed and sat down on it with Eren. The dog laid his head down on his lap as Jean finally took his bag off. Opening it up, he quickly checked the part where he kept his cards, since that’s where he usually kept his ID. As he was looking in there, he noticed that the cards had gotten out of order. “What the… ah whatever. Must have been on the ride.” He threw his bag across the room before reaching for his sketchbook that was on the tabletop next to his bed along with his pencil.

“Hey Eren,” Jean asked the small dog who looked up at him, “Wanna be my model for today?” The dog barked at him. “Okay, then just stay there…” Jean flipped his book open to a blank section before getting started. He kept glancing back and forth between where the dog was on his lap and the picture he was drawing. Unlike the models for his art class, Eren – ironically both the dog and the human, could never stay still in the same way the models did. He’s seen some models complain about being sore for staying still for over an hour. Eren (both of them) kept fidgeting.

When Jean had the overall body figure drawn, Eren flipped over. “Wow, thanks,” Jean grumbled sarcastically. There was a bark from Eren when he nudged Jean’s arm. Jean sighed and patted the exposed belly of the dog, making him pant. “Ah man, so good to be back with you. Instead of killer bunnies.” Jean moved his hand up to Eren’s chin and tickled the dog. Watching the dog’s tail wag like mad, Jean felt the dogs fur.

Eren had fur that was a little rough, rougher than what Jeanbo had, but it was still nice to feel. His fur was black, almost the same shade Mikasa was… Mikasa had more of a blue-black color, which from what he understood was from her birth mom, who was from overseas. Eren – again, the dog, not the human – had a solid jet black color, like obsidian.

… Like Marco’s hair actually.

Thinking of the freckled boy made Jean whine. “Ahh, he was so cute~” He grasped his hair as he groaned in agony. “Why? Why did he have to so darn CUTE?! And he’s my age at that!!” Letting out another whine, he hung his head. “Eren, you should have seen him. He was one of the cutest things of all existence!” He flopped down on his back as he seized his pillow before muffling himself with it. “GAAAAH! He was so friggin adorable~”

Jean had been identifying himself as bisexual for the last two years, but most of the people that he had felt attraction to weren’t what he considered cute. Most of them were what he considered hot and sexy. And Mikasa was definetly the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, but he knew if she wasn’t interested in a romantic or sexual relationship, and he had no right to force her into one. Yeah, he was heartbroken when she said no, but that was a normal response. Hell, it was enough she saw him as a friend.

Besides, she was never the kind to take crap from anyone, even if it was someone she knew. You treated her like a piece of shit, and there was no doubt you were going to deeply regret it. She didn’t win last summer’s wrestling championship for nothing. And then there was Eren. The human, not the dog. Eren would have punched Jean both in the face and the groin in five seconds flat.

But Marco… he wasn’t like anyone else he felt attraction to. The guy was… sweet. More than any other kids his age were. And then there was the naivety. Which seemed really cute to Jean.

“He did the cutest pout! And head tilt!!” He held his pillow a bit closer as he continued. “Those cheeks, they were so round and freckly!! I-I bet if I poked them, more freckles would appear! And they must be really soft!!” Jean started rolling in his bed as he continued. “And he was so friggin nice!! Gu~ He was so cute!”

… But… He also seemed… really childish. Then again, his dad might have sheltered Marco from the world. He’s seen parents who desperately try to shield their kids from everything… although the parents had good intentions, those kids had higher chances of being the more messed up ones. And he was more than positive the doctor had the means. Mansion in the countryside seemed like the most obvious thing at the moment. Less likely for Marco to be around some of the things Jean and Eren were.

Jean sighed as he rubbed his cheek against the pillowcase. “Wouldn’t mind if I had to spend more time with him.”

As he was saying that, he suddenly remembered the rabbits. He froze and remain silent. Marco was cute… but the rabbits. No. Just no. Especially when one of them wanted to eat him. Jean shuddered at the thought, no longer sure if seeing Marco was worth being eaten. “Maybe not…”

He then heard the house phone go off. “I’ll get it!” Emma. She didn’t have to yell loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.

Jean held the pillow against his face a while longer before there was a knock at his door. “Jean?” Lance. “It’s dad. He said he’s coming over later.”

_I think I’ll take the rabbit afterall._

If Jean had the choice between killer rabbits and douche-dad, he’d choose the rabbits. At least rabbits would put him out of his misery that his dad would put him through. Especially over Jean’s bisexuality.

-

“Why did you guys decide to hang out in my bedroom?” Eren felt his eyebrow twitch as he sat on the floor next to the bed for him while Mikasa and Sasha were drinking some juice.

“For the third time, more convenient.”

“Meaning?”

“We know that you have candy stashed in this room, so we decided to help ourselves to some of it. Don’t worry, we left most of it.” Oh. Wonderful. His room was a candy club. “And a certain someone wanted us to hang with him.”

Eren blinked. That was new. He then looked at the only other being who would beg for them to be in the room. “Jean.”

The german shepherd was snoozing away on his bed when he heard his name being said. Jean’s ears perked up and he opened his eyes to look at Eren, giving him a literal puppy eye look. Eren sighed in defeat. “Never mind.”

There was a knock at the door and Eren saw his mom leaning in. “Hey, how’s study group going?”

“Alright. Except my room has been taken from me.”

His mom sighed. “Well brought you kids some dinner.”

Sasha turned to face her. “IS IT THE RISOTTO?!”

“Yep. And some other things.” She came in the room and placed three plates with the food Eren had last night on the table between Mikasa and Sasha. “And we have dessert for later, okay?”

“Got it!” Sasha immediately started eating, squealing in delight. Eren scooted away from her as his mom left the room. “OH! OH DISH IS GUD!!” Sasha continued stuffing her face in pure glee.

Mikasa started eating her food and glanced up to Eren. “So, besides the doctor, did you and Jean meet anyone else?”

“Uh, yeah. His assistants, although one of them was a real jerk. And some of the servants too, including the chief.”

Eren then saw Sasha’s head perk up. “The chief?” She leaned in, clearly excited. “TELL ME. DID YOU SEE HER COOKING? ANY TRICKS SHE DID?”

“H-her name was Lidia. A-and no. She kept me and Jean out of the kitchen while she was working.”

“WHAT?!” Sasha threw her head back in disappointment. “Awww…” Then she turned her attention back to the plate and kept eating.

“Was there anyone else?” Mikasa picked up her glass and took a sip.

Eren prodded at the bit of salmon in his plate. “… Yeah. Dr. Bodt’s son. Marco.”

Both Sasha’s and Mikasa’s eyes widen before Mikasa spat out her juice and started choking. As soon as she stopped, she turned to Eren with a surprised expression. “S-SON?! DAD NEVER ONCE SAID HE HAD A KID!”

“I was surprised too.”

“Wait, so if the doctor has a kid, he must be married to someone, right?” Sasha leaned in. “Did you see her? Or him? Or is the son adopted?”

“No, he’s not adopted, he looked similar to his dad. As for his mom…” Eren looked down. “… Marco said she died.”

Sasha bit her lip in regret of asking. ”Oh… uh, let’s forget I ever asked.” She turned back to her food. After a minute or so of awkward silence, she looked back up at Eren. “… So… what was the son like?”

Eren glanced to the side. “… Naïve. That’s what I can think off the top of my head.”

“And?”

“… Nicer than what most rich kids would be I guess. He was pretty close to his dad too…” Eren frowned to himself. “Just hope he’s not too lonely in that place.”

“Did he have any pets?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” Eren smirked at the very thought. “Bunnies. Three of them.”

“Ooooh ho ho maaaan,” Sasha laughed in-between bites, “Jean hates bunnies! How did he deal with them?”

“One of them didn’t really pay attention to him. He was more preoccupied with food. The second one was simply a matter of not making her angry. The third one though… was way more social. And she ended up taking a big liking to him.”

There was a snicker from Sasha as Mikasa leaned her head in. “What type of rabbits were they?”

“Small ones. Like, small enough to fit in my hand.” He held his hand up to emphasize his statement.

“Really.” There was some more interest in her voice.

“Yeah, but they were still trouble makers.”

“Well, then I’m sure the kid over there has his hands full in that case,” Mikasa said.

“I guess but-” Eren stopped talking when he heard something from the window in his room. “Huh?” Eren got up and took a look. It was coming from Jean’s house.

“Jean! Get back here!” Eren felt himself grimace at the voice. Jean’s dad.

“Forget it! Just stay away from me!!” Jean’s room was completely visible from were Eren was, so Eren watched as the taller boy stormed in and was about to slam the door closed.

As he was closing it, Jean’s dad appeared and grabbed the door. “Jean! Quit acting unreasonable!”

“Oh? Me? Unreasonable? That’s funny, ‘cause last I checked, you’re the one who decided to leave your pregnant wife because of a little gambling affair that happened!” Jean tried to force the door closed, but his dad must have managed to keep it open just a little bit.

“Hey I came back, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, as if coming back after 5 years you left counted as an apology!”

“Look, you’re just exaggerating things! I have a right to see my kids, and to set them straight! Instead of having them be raised by a single mother and letting them get dumb ideas in their head!” Now Jean forced the door closed. “Ow!!” By the sound of that, his dad didn’t move whatever he was using to keep the door open in time. Hopefully it was his fingers. All of his fingers.

Eren watched as Jean crumpled something that was in his hand and threw it against the wall. There was some more movement before Jean went to his bed and sat down in a frustrated motion next to his dog.

Eren then felt Mikasa poke him. “What is it?”

“Invite him over here. It won’t be long before his dad to, and manages to unlock the door.” Sasha nodded in agreement.

“… Kay. Gimme a sec.” Eren got up and took the walk-way board he kept in his room before opening up his window and placing it to serve as a bridge, and tossed a small rock he kept in the room against the other house. “Jean.”

“Hah?” The blonde turned his head to see Eren holding the board. “Eren?”

“No, it’s Cinnamon, the rabbit. Come on. Cross over.”

Jean looked at him before nodding. “Kay.” He picked his dog up and carefully started walking across to Eren’s window. As he was stepping in, he saw Mikasa and turned a faint pink. “Oh, h-hey Mikasa.”

“Hey Jean. Guess the ultimate jerk decided to swing by.”

Jean sighed. “Yeah, more or less.” He saw the other Jean on Eren’s bed and smiled a bit. “Hey bud. You doing good?” Dog-Jean looked at Jean and saw dog-Eren. Dog-Eren barked at the other dog before jumping down and getting on Eren’s bed and snuggling with the other dog. Those two got along really well for some reason. “Glad to see one of us is more chipper than the other right now,” Jean commented as dog-Jean licked the smaller dog.

“You hungry? I can tell my mom that you’re here and bring some food for you,” Mikasa offered.

“… Nah. I’m good.” Jean leaned against Eren’s bed and ruffled his hair. “I think I’ll be here until my dad leaves, which will be in at the most an hour. And my mom told me that dinner will be in two hours, so I’ll have to head back over.”

“Alright. What about something to drink?”

“Okay.”

She got up and headed to the door. “And if your dad swings by and tries to see you, mom and I will punch him for you.”

Jean blushed a bit more and smiled at her. “Thanks.”

When Mikasa left, Sasha turned to Jean and had a Cheshire-cat grin on her face. “So, from what Eren said, you spent the night with rabbits.”

“Wha… JAEGER!!” Jean turned to glare at Eren.

“They asked if there were any pets.” Eren adverted his gaze from Jean as if to feign innocence.

“DAAH!!” Jean gripped his hair in frustration before glaring at Sasha. “SO WHAT OF IT!!”

“He also said one of them took a liking to you.” Jean gapped in horror. “So, what the bunny like? Did you offer her a date?”

“OF COURSE NOT!!” Jean crossed his arms. “Nothing could get me to date a rabbit!”

_Oh, be glad Marshmallow didn’t hear that._

“What if the rabbit had a hot owner?” As Sasha was eating some more risotto after that, she suddenly frowned. “Hey wait, Eren also said that the doctor had a son. What did you think of him?”

Jean stopped frowning and soon turned a bright red. “Dah? Oh, well, he was… he was…” After a minute of being frozen, Jean suddenly threw his head back and exclaimed, “HE WAS ADORABLE!!”

Sasha blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“HIS FACE WAS ROUND, AND HE HAD FRECKLES ALL OVER!” Without warning, he took dog-Eren from the bed and held the dog close, earning a whine from the small dog. “HIS CHEEKS HAD THE MOST OF WHAT WERE PLACED ON HIS FACE!! AND THEY LOOKED SO SOFT!!” He then flopped down on Eren’s bed. “NGGGGGG, AND THAT LITTLE POUT OF HIS! THEN THAT RIDICULOUSLY CUTE SMILE!!”

Sasha looked at Eren. “He didn’t say any of that stuff out loud while you were over there, were you?”

“No. He probably bottled all of it up until he got home. As usual.” Whenever Jean felt an attraction to someone, he would try to keep cool around them. But as soon as the person was gone, Jean started going on and on about what he thought about the person. It was annoying to Eren, but he never felt any real attraction to people, so maybe this was common for people to do when they were attracted to someone else.

The door opened up again and Mikasa walked back in with a glass of juice and saw Jean hugging dog-Eren. She raised an eyebrow at everyone in the room. “Is everything okay?”

“Well, apparently Jean has a thing for the doc’s son,” Sasha said while eating some salmon.

Mikasa looked at Jean. “Really?”

Jean looked at her and squawked awkwardly. “W-well uh…” He sat back up on Eren’s bed and shuffled a bit. “I-I mean he’s really cute…” Jean never really discussed his attraction to others with Mikasa. He said it was too embarrassing or something like that.

She nodded and walked over to him and handed his juice over. “Okay.” She then looked at Eren’s plate. “Eren, you haven’t eaten any of your food.”

She looked at him and Eren diverted his eyes from her. “Not really hungry.”

Mikasa went over to him, forked some salmon, then stuffed it into his mouth. “Eat.”

“Mf-ff-fh!!” Eren tried to speak past the food in his mouth, but he wasn’t having much luck. At least it wasn’t another biscuit. Finally, Eren surrendered to her and swallowed the food. “Fine, I’ll eat.” He took the fork from her and ate some of his risotto.

“Can I go get some more?” Everyone looked at Sasha, who had finished her plate.

“Yeah, my mom has everything out downstairs,” Mikasa answered.

“YAY!” Sasha pumped her fists in the air. She quickly stood up with her plate and dashed out of the room.

Eren stared in the direction she went. “How does anyone finish that fast?”

“I prefer not to know the answer,” Mikasa confessed as she resumed eating.

“Rauw.” Eren blinked in confusion and looked at the window. Jeanbo was sitting there with a roll of toilet paper. “Mrow.”

“Hey kitty,” Mikasa immediately greeted the cat. “What are you doing?”

Jean looked at his cat then at the toilet paper. “You stole it again?!” Jeanbo looked at the blond, and after a moment, Jean shrugged. “Okay.”

Mikasa looked at Jean in confusion. “Why does she steal toilet paper?”

“If someone she doesn’t like disturbs her while she’s going to the bathroom, she’ll take the toilet paper as revenge. The only person currently in my place at the moment who hasn’t got that down would be my dad.”

Eren looked at the cat again, who had a neutral-judging face on. “Okay…” Jeanbo then batted the paper roll off the window ledge and watched as it plummeted down. “Well that’s a waste!” Jeanbo merely turned to face Eren and jumped off the window edge before going to his bookshelf. She stared at a small box he kept there that had some caramel before turning back at Eren. “… No. No, no, no, don’t even think about it!” Eren pointed at Jeanbo as she turned back at the box with judgment.

Then, as all cats are known to do, she used her paw and knocked the box down, scattering the caramels all over the floor. The dogs, who just noticed the box being knocked over, immediate went for the caramels that were for the taking. “AH!” Eren jumped up and tried to pull Jean and Eren away from the candies. “Cut it out!” Dog-Jean kept his mouth closed as soon as he got some of the caramels in his mouth while dog-Eren was trying to chew the piece he had in his mouth.

“Hey buddy! Cut that out!” Jean took his dog from Eren and started picking out the caramel wads stuck on his teeth. “Hey, can someone bring me a trashcan?”

“Here.” Mikasa offered him a small trashcan that Eren kept around.

“Thanks.”

Eren continued trying to coax dog-Jean to open his mouth again as that was going on. “Jean, come on, open!” The only response was and audible gulp from the dog that everyone in the room heard.

_He ate the caramels._

“AAAAH!!”

“What?! What’s going on?!” Sasha reappeared at the door holding some food.

“THE DUMB DOG ATE SOME CARAMELS!!” He pointed at dog-Jean, who was happily panting.

“EEEHHH?! GET HIM TO VOMIT BACK UP! OR HE’LL GET SICK LATER!” Sasha put the plate down and started flailing her arms in panic.

“HOW DO WE DO THAT?!”

“WE’LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT!!”

-

“Well, that was a… great length we went for a disastrous result.”

All four kids were now in the living room, glaring at the german shepherd, who was as blissful as ever. He did end up vomiting back up the caramels, but the methods that they used to make it happen… they were safe, but no one wanted to discuss the details ever again. And then there was the fact dog-Jean threw up on Mrs. Jaeger’s favorite pillow, by accident – they didn’t plan location out, so they got in trouble with her. And then she found out about the sweets Eren kept in his room, and she took all of them out. And by all, she did get every single stash.

She didn’t throw them away – which would be a waste – but she put them in the kitchen. And was now closely monitoring them, making sure Eren wouldn’t snack on them instead of food she prepared.

Dog-Eren nuzzled against dog-Jean, who licked the smaller dog again. “Look at them, unaware of the trouble they caused,” Eren growled, feeling a vein throb on his forehead.

“Technically, it was only Jean who ate the caramels,” Mikasa corrected.

“WHAT ABOUT JEANBO? SHE KNOCKED THE BOX OVER IN THE FIRST PLACE!” Eren pointed his finger at the cat as she was grooming herself on the steps.

Mikasa looked at the cat and shrugged. “Well, when you put it that way…”

“Jean!” Jean turned to where the voice came from, and Eren looked as well to see Lance standing at the doorway. “Dad left a few minutes ago, and mom wants you to come over and help set the table.”

“Okay, no problem.” Jean picked up the small dog before going over to Jeanbo. As he tried to pick her up, she attacked both him and dog-Eren and hissed at them. “AH! Dumb cat!”

“Here.” Lance came over and picked her up. “You are really nasty to Eren, huh?” Jeanbo then attacked the smaller boy’s face, knocking his glasses off and then bit his nose. “OW!!” Lance dropped her and covered his nose. “Ow…” He reached to grab his glasses as Jeanbo walked towards the front door. “Don’t be mean to me!” Eren watched as Lance ran after her. “Get back here!”

Jean shook his head as he watched his younger brother run. “Thanks for letting me hang here.”

“No problem.” Eren watched as Jean went after Lance. “See you at school!”

Jean turned around and waved at him before going out. “What is with that cat?”

“Maybe she’s possessed by a parasite,” Lance joked as their voices slowly faded away.

Eren looked back at his dog, who seemed disappointed that his dog friend and owners left. “You can see him tomorrow,” Eren told him as he turned away. He started for the stairs and went to his bedroom. Eren took the bridge-board in and closed his window. It was getting kind of windy.

_Now I just need to pray it isn’t going to rain._

“Hey, Eren?” He turned around and saw both girls looking at him. “Mom said that she managed to clean the pillow,” Mikasa informed him, “But that you have dish-duty for tonight and the rest of the week.”

“Alright.” He saw Jean trot back in before going onto his bed. Jean stretched before falling back asleep. “Why did we buy a dog bed for him again? He seems to be using mine all the time.”

“So that you can sleep in your bed once in a while.”

“Ah, right.” Eren sat down next to Jean and scratched the dog’s ear. It was hard to stay mad at him when he was like this. Jean seemed so sweet when he was asleep, ever since Jean – the person – gave him to Eren.

Eren prayed that for the blonde’s sake, that his siblings won’t be trying to sleep in his bed tonight. Because then both of them would stay up.

-

Jean blinked as his eyes adjusted to the current surroundings. He was… in the woods, and that’s all he was able to tell since it was dark, like it was night time. “… Where…” He glanced around to see if he recognized anything. Nope. Probably just a really weird dream then. Had to be. He remembered having dinner with his family, doing some homework, then he went to hit the sac. After fighting his brother and sisters off, as they were trying to join him. So unless he started sleepwalking and just woke up, it had to be a dream.

He started walking around to see if there was anything else nearby. Feeling damp grass beneath his feet, Jean shivered. “Cold…” He started massaging his arms in an effort to warm himself up.

_… Is… is this really a dream?_

Despite the fact he didn’t recognize any of his surroundings, everything looked real. Felt real. Sounded real, since there was the sound of wind and a few other things. The smell of the air seemed suitable for his surroundings. And… he couldn’t seem to get himself to wake up. “Come on Jean…” He started hitting his forehead in an effort to get himself to wake up. But for some reason, he didn’t feel any pain. “Okay, this is odd…”

_Okay, now I’m having a hard time figuring out if I’m really asleep or not._

He continued walking, feeling that there was nothing better or worse that could come out of it. After what felt like a few minutes, he saw an old, large tree in a wide clearing. “Wow, I’ve never seen this before in my life. God, it’s amazing. I hope I can remember what this looks like when I get my sketchbook.” He went up to it, reaching out to touch the bark.

As his finger was less than a centimeter away, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. Turning around and holding his hands up, he saw it again. The same, person-like figure that he saw back in the Bodt’s mansion. But this time, it was approaching him. Jean felt the urge to scream in horror, but nothing was coming out of him. It was as if his voice and mouth froze at the moment he felt the urge. He watched as the figure reached out its hand to him. “Come… see...” As the hand came closer, he saw that it had several stab injuries and blood was coming out of them.

“AH!” He suddenly found himself back in his room, on his bed. Exactly the same way when he went to sleep. “Oh, holy shit… that had to be one of the most terrifying dreams ever… even if the only scary part was at the end…” He stared at the ceiling for a while, trying to relax before going back to sleep.

Finally feeling that he relaxed enough, he turned in bed, ready to drift off again.

_I wonder why I saw that… thing again. Maybe I was just more tired than I thought… What the hell was that thing though?… It’s just probably a trick of the mind that happened over at the mansion. That’s the most reasonable thing I can think of. Not like it’s a ghost. Ghosts don’t-_

Jean was brought out of his thought when he heard the house creek from the wind. Oh. Oh no. He did not want to deal with that after what happened in dreamland. Bringing his fingers to his mouth, he whistled. After a few seconds, Eren appeared at the door. “Eren, come.” He held the blankets up for the smaller dog to join him. He was sure as hell not going to tell anyone that he was afraid of any nightmare, but there was no way he was gonna sleep alone. Eren barked at him and immediately joined Jean under the covers.

Jean petted the smaller dog as he curled up against him. “Well, good night buddy.”

Oddly enough, the dog fell asleep before he did.

* * *

Here are the sketches I promised in the last chapter! The order is going to be: Annabelle, Adrian, Kas, and Carmela.

 

Annabelle:

 

 

Adrian:

 

 

Kas:

 

 

Carmela:

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had some trouble putting the pictures up XP Took more time than anything else while posting this.  
> If you guys have trouble seeing them, I'll put them up on tumblr.
> 
> Hope you guys liked it!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY!! Sorry for the wait!! At least it's on Valentine's day!  
> TW: there is slut-shaming towards the end of this chapter, but the person dies if that makes u feel better
> 
> Total-Fangirl did some fanart for me on DA, and here's a link to her work: http://totalfangir1.deviantart.com/art/Mashmallow-Dreams-and-Nightmares-512950329  
> Thank you again for doing this cute piece of work of a bunbun :3
> 
> If anyone is curious on how the hell the comments went all the way up to 1997, it's because if you are willing to engage, I can get into lengthy discussions about headcannons, AUs, ships, discussing pets with u, and I might accidentally get you hooked on Markiplier :P
> 
> Also, I did some editing, and i figured out how to do the accent marks while typing, so Papa is now Papá, and Mama is Mamá.

Marco twitched his nose when he felt something start to tickle him gently. He probably should have opened his eyes, but he was so tired. But then he felt a familiar fluff cover his face. “Mff…” He forced his eyes open and saw Marshmallow’s red eyes staring back at him. “M-Marshmallow?” Marco felt her tongue start to lick his forehead and slowly made her way down to his mouth and started giving him kisses, all while her fur was tickling him. “Pff, silly bun,” Marco laughed as he let go of Conejito and took Marshmallow off his face. Or tried to take her off. She clung to him, refusing to let go.

“Mrf.” Marshmallow had been extra-needy since Jean left. After Ymir brought her food yesterday, she did get off his books, but she insisted on having someone hold her. Bertholdt took that duty for a while, until he had to go to the bathroom. But when he had to go to the restroom, she became depressed again and started screaming, so Ymir had to hold her after him to cheer her up. After Marco finished his math, he took her off their hands, but she kept nuzzling his face. And when Marco fell asleep from the nightmare/dream medicine, she started pestering everyone. Annie, who was back by then, told Marco that Marshmallow forced her to carry her around as she was doing chores.

After he woke up, Annie handed Marshmallow back to him. During dinner, Marshmallow refused to sit on the floor. Instead, she joined everyone. On the table. Cinnamon didn’t want Marshmallow to get special treatment, so she joined Marshmallow, soon followed by Chocolate, who tried eating out of everyone’s plates. And as soon as he started, so did the other two, much to everyone else’s chagrin.

When Papá tried to take them down, Marshmallow jumped to his face, and refused to budge. Marco did try to take her off, but she gave him a look that just made him feel incredibly guilty for trying to. Whenever someone else tried to pry her off, she started squealing and clung even more, and was rubbing herself against Papá’s face when she accidentally moved his eye patch out of place.

Marco sat up, feeling Marshmallow slide down to his arms, and shook his head recalling that part. He had seen Papá without his eye patch before several times, but he couldn’t help but feel a little spooked each time he saw Papá’s empty eye socket. Unlike the burn scar on Papá’s face, the socket seemed to be raw inside. He knew the accident that Papá was in damaged his eye too much to have vision, and the doctor who treated him had to remove it. Papá told him that there was no chance of saving it.

Papá also said whenever he tried putting in an artificial eye, it would keep falling out, as well as getting dirty. Which was why Papá opted for an eye patch instead. There wasn’t much of his right eyelids left after the accident, so they didn’t sew the socket shut. Because of that, Papá had to keep cleaning his eye socket to prevent any infections, which Annabelle usually helped him with.

And having Marshmallow on his face wasn’t the best method of keeping an empty socket clean. As she was getting herself all over the right side of Papá’s face, Annabelle instantly removed her the moment she walked in the room and handed her to Lidia before taking Kas to clean his eye socket.

Marco felt incredibly bad because he was responsible for Marshmallow, and he let that huge disaster happen.

Lidia offered Marshmallow a whole bucket of strawberries for all three bunnies to eat that she stopped trying to cling to people’s faces, but she sat in Marco’s lap as she ate the berries. When she and the other two finished eating, Marco sent himself to bed without dessert.

As he was stuck in self-loathing, Marco felt the bed’s weight shift, and saw that Cinnamon and Chocolate had gotten up as well. “Good morning.” As he was greeting them, they jumped into his lap and started pawing him, wanting to be held as well. “Okay, gimme a sec.” He adjusted Marshmallow and quickly scooped up the other two. He then kissed all three of them. “Hope you guys slept well.”

Marco then noticed that there was running outside. He turned his head to face the door, concerned. “Is something going on?”

“Ymir wait! She’s still missing!!”

“Well, he needs to take his medicine, so while I’m taking care of that, look for her, okay?” The door opened an Ymir walked in. Only to suddenly freeze.

Marco stared back at her, confused. “Ymir? Are you okay?”

“… Ah ha ha ha ha ha…” Ymir slumped over and turned to the wall. “Heh heh heh heh…” She continued laughing, making Marco worry.

“What is it Ymir?” Bertholdt walked in and looked at Ymir then at Marco, only to freeze as well. “… Marco?”

“Yes?”

“How long was Marshmallow in here?”

“I woke up a few minutes ago and she was here. Why?”

There was a groan from the tall boy before he went back out. “FOUND HER.”

“WHERE?!” Marco jumped at the sound of Reiner’s voice.

“Marco’s bedroom.”

There was an uneasy moment that was filled with Ymir’s deranged laughter. Reiner then busted in and looked at the rabbits Marco was holding. “INDEED SHE IS.”

“I-Is something wrong?”

Reiner looked at Marco, and the smaller boy noticed that the blonde had dark circles under his yes. “Nothing. Except while you were asleep, she woke up before you did and was banging on all of the doors sometime around four in the morning, then she went outside, and we have been hunting for her for the last two hours.”

Marco stared at Reiner. “Oh… I see.” He looked down at Marshmallow, who was nuzzling against Marco’s chest.

_How long was she out there? And when did she come back in?_

Marco looked back up at Reiner. “I-I’m sorry for the trouble she caused.”

Reiner nodded and sighed. “Well, now we know to make sure all the doors are locked at night in case she tries anything again.” He then looked at Ymir. “I better take her down stairs before she truly looses it.” Reiner went over to Ymir and began guiding her out of the room. “Come on, let’s get you down stairs, eat something, Lidia needs some help with getting things ready for breakfast.”

Ymir replied with more strained laughter as she went outside and disappeared with Reiner. Marco stared at the doorway, not sure what to do next.

He looked back at his rabbits, who were looking at him innocently. “Marshmallow, how did you get outside?” She made a small sound at him, which he shook his head at. “Well, promise me you won’t do it again.” He stood up from bed and looked out the window. It was still raining. “Noooo, stop.” Marco hung his head as he whined. Will the rain never end?

_Wait… rain. Marshmallow was outside. Oh god, is she okay?!_

Marco looked at her again, and felt himself starting to panic. What if she got hypothermia?!

There was a knock at the doorway, and Marco saw Annabelle standing there. “Good morning Marco.”

“Good morning Annabelle… I heard what Marshmallow did. Sorry. Uh,” Marco fidgeted a bit before holding Marshmallow out a bit. “Could you please take a look at her? I’m worried she’ll get sick, because it’s raining, and rabbits are sensitive to cold water.”

“No need to apologize for it. And of course I can.” Marco nodded and handed Marshmallow over, who nuzzled Annabelle’s hand. “Hmm, she doesn’t seem like she was caught in the rain for too long. But I’ll be staying here for today, and I can’t do much in the basement until your father comes back, so if you see any signs that she is otherwise, let me know and I’ll examine her. And we can give her one of the sweaters to keep her warm.”

“Alright. Thank you Annabelle.” He looked at her as she petted Marshmallow. “Is Papá okay? I didn’t see him after you took him to clean his eye socket.”

“He’s fine. He was a little twitchy since he had gotten some rabbit hairs, but nothing infection or grudge worthy. But he ended up getting together a few extra things last night for med school interns at the hospital.”

“Wow, usually he waits till the morning to do that stuff.” Papá sometimes showed interns how to perform operations and surgeries, or helped them find where their skills with medical practices were. He didn’t do it that often, since he says he’s not a person’s first choice of a mentor. Marco didn’t believe that though. He also had a habit of leaving things to be gathered just before he left.

“Well, he just had to get some things out of his system. He had… he had a rather hectic day at work. Marshmallow was just a small breadcrumb to everything else.”

Marco giggled at Annabelle’s analogy. “Alright.”

“Anyway,” Annabelle looked at Marco, “Get changed, Ms. Jordan will be arriving some time after 11, so we want to be ready for her.”

“Yes ma’am.”

-

Reiner was setting the plates at the table when he glanced back carefully at Ymir. Judging from the fact that she was still laughing while working in a seriously disturbing manner, he was more than positive that her sanity must be seriously cracked. Due to being woken up in four in the morning, then having to spend two hours looking around outside for a particular rabbit, only to be found indoors.

_Let’s just hope this is just a temporary crack._

He felt something bump into him from behind as he was looking at Ymir. “Sorry.” Reiner looked over his shoulders and saw Bert there, holding the utensils, blinking rapidly.

“Still not awake yet?”

“Not yet.” Bert yawned before continuing. “And it’s not helping that a particular someone was making us run around outside.” Reiner noticed his eyebrow twitching as he said that last part.

_Okay, I might need to keep an eye on him to see if his sanity will crack later._

Reiner watched the taller boy as he started putting the utensils on the table before glancing back at Ymir again. She was still laughing when he heard someone enter the room. He glanced over and saw Marco entering with Annabelle, holding the three bunnies… which were in sweaters.

“Daaaw, look at them.” Reiner couldn’t help but feel his heart soften at the sight. “They’re so cute in their little sweaters~”

“Hrrrrmmmmmm…” Reiner glanced over at Ymir and saw a slightly annoyed look on her face as she was looking at the rabbits, apparently back in reality. “They better stay indoors from now on.”

“They will,” Marco assured her while holding his bunnies close. “I promise. And if they get out, I’ll do chores for a week.”

Ymir frowned at him. “Are you trying to put me out of business?”

Marco smiled awkwardly at that. “No…” There was then a loud thud, and everyone looked in the direction it came from, and saw Bertholdt was walking into a wall. “Uh… Bertholdt?” Marco walked up to the tall boy. “Are you okay?”

“Why isn’t this door opening?”

“Because it isn’t a door,” Annabelle stated plainly.

“I’m pretty sure it is.” Reiner shook his head and went up to him and pulled him away from the wall. “… OH.” Bert’s eye and eyebrow twitched when he saw it was indeed just a wall.

Annabelle looked at Reiner and nodded. “Thank you Reiner.”

“Sure. If I just let him continue, there would have been the chance that a hole could have been made in the wall. A colossal one at that.” Bertholdt turned his head to face Reiner, and simply stared. “… What?”

“Um Bertholdt?” Marco leaned in a little closer. “If you want, you can take time off today-”

“YOU ARE TRYING TO PUT US OUT OF BUSINESS!” Ymir pointed her finger at Marco accusingly.

Reiner saw Annabelle shake her head. “I think you might need some time to sleep today Ymir.”

“I don’t sleep use to need.” As soon as she said that, a dumbfounded look appeared on her face. “… Maybe I do need more sleep.”

“Given the grammar error, yeah,” Reiner muttered.

“GAH!!” There was a loud thud from up stair that was coupled with that shout. Everyone in the room instantly recognized the scenario.

Kas was finally up, and from the sounds of it, fell down the stairs while running. Despite the fact he killed people in his own home, it always baffled Reiner that he was prone to falling down the stairs.

_You’d imagine someone who killed people wouldn’t be the clumsy kind with the stairs._

After a few seconds, there was a groan and Kas walked in, hair once again messy, rubbing his forehead. “Ow…”

“I keep telling you to stop running down the stairs,” Annabelle said sternly, crossing her arms.

“It’s not me! It’s the stairs! I told you we should have slides put in for going down!!”

Now Annabelle stared at him. “And I’ve told you, it’s inconvenient compared to just stop running.”

Kas crinkled his nose. “Uuuuhh, not fair.”

Annabelle rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you just sit down? Breakfast will be ready soon.” With that, she started walking away.

Kas’ nose returned to normal as he looked over at her. “Why not stay and have breakfast with us today?”

Annabelle stopped before looking back. “Only if you fix your hair later.”

After a minute, he sighed. “Alright… But…” After a moment of silence, he suddenly hugged Marco. “I GET TO SIT NEXT TO MARCO TODAY!!”

“I won’t going to stop you,” Annabelle responded plainly. “But those rabbits will soon die of suffocation if you keep holding him like that.”

Reiner and Kas blinked in confusion. “Huh?” Both of them looked down at Marco, and saw that all three rabbits were smooshed together between him and his father, and Cinnamon was growling more than normal. “AH! Sorry!!” Dr. Bodt stepped back, and Cinnamon instantly glared at him as soon as he was far enough for her to look at. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt them,” Kas told Marco.

“I know,” Marco replied as he tried to set the rabbits down. Tried because as soon as he started lowering them, Marshmallow started squealing in a frightening manner, and then the other two started, so Marco immediately stood back up and adjusted them in his arms. “Shh, shhh,” Marco instantly told them as he started petting them with one hand.

“I guess Marshmallow is going to be a bit of a trouble maker more than usual for today I suppose,” Kas commented as he looked at them.

“I-I’m sorry Papá,” Marco squeaked as he shuffled in shame.

_Three, two, one…_

“Don’t be, you’re so cute Marco~” Kas hugged Marco around his neck so that the bunnies wouldn’t be suffocated this time and kissed his forehead.

“Mnnn~” Marco turned a faint red as Kas continued coddling him. “Papáa~”

There was a low chuckle from Kas before there was another thud from the wall. Reiner looked away from the father and son and saw Bertholdt was walking into the wall again. Reiner walked over to the taller boy and tapped his shoulder. “Bert?”

“Ah-Wha?”

“The wall.” Reiner took him back a bit again and tilted his head in the direction. “You were running into it again.”

Bert turned a slight pink in realization. “Oh.”

After a few minutes, everyone – including both Annabelle and Lidia – were sitting at the table, and bunnies were sitting in Marco’s lap, even though their food was just beneath his chair. Reiner kept glancing back and forth between Ymir and Bert. Bert’s head kept dropping and then going back up while Ymir was playing around with her fork and the ham on her plate. Okay, they were still somehow holding it together still…

“How long are you going to be gone today Papá?”

“I think I won’t be back until after nighttime. I have several surgeries scheduled for today, and the last one will take a while. The patient has been a regular lately,” Kas answered while looking at Marco.

“I see… well, I’m sure you’ll do all of them perfectly!” Marco beamed at his father, quickly hiding the disappointment that his father would be gone for mots of the day.

And Reiner knew that as soon as he was back, he would be going… down stairs. He shoved a sausage in his mouth to push out the though. “REINER!” He looked at Lidia, who was frowning at him. “Cut that sausage up before eating it!!”

“M fih’,” Reiner mumbled through his sausage.

Now both Lidia and Annabelle were glaring at him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Both women instructed.

Reiner swallowed his sausage. “Sorry.” He raised his hand to get something next to his mouth.

“Use a napkin young man!”

Reiner set his hand down and grabbed his napkin. Whenever either Annabelle or Lidia – or both – were at the table to eat, they always told people what to do or not to do when eating.

“Doctor, don’t even think of using that sleeve to wipe your mouth.” Annabelle directed a ‘done’ expression at Kas, who was frozen in place, holding his arm up.

“I can just clean the sleeve afterward.”

“SIR.”

There was a sigh from Kas as he lowered his arm and reached for his napkin. Without warning, Marshmallow reached for the napkin on the table and jumped up on the table and sat on the napkin, reaching for his hand and pulling his hand to her. “Marco, could you please take her back?” Marshmallow was now rubbing her face all over his hand.

“Yes Papá.” Marco reached for her and picked her up, but she still was clinging to Kas’ hand, taking it with her. “Marshmallow, you need to let go of Papá.” There was a small whine from the bunny as she tightened her grip around her hostage-hand. “Marshmallow, I’ll give you cherries if you do let go.” Her grip loosened, but she still was hanging on. “And I’ll let you sit with me during class.” Now she released the doctor’s hand. “Good.” Marco smiled at his rabbit as he set her down in his lap.

“You’re such a darling boy,” Lidia cooed as she smiled at Marco before reaching over and pinching his cheek. “You get double desserts today.”

“Mmmm~” Marco winced as his face was tugged and Reiner watched with concern. It was a miracle that Marco’s face hadn’t started sagging due to the face pinching.

“He is cute, isn’t he,” Kas stated as he smiled at Marco and pinched the other cheek, although it wasn’t as strong as Lidia’s pinch. There was another small whine from Marco before his father let go and patted his head.

There was then a knock at the front door. “I’ll get it.” Annabelle stood up and left the dinning room, soon followed by the sound of her opening the door. “Good morning William.” William, the current carriage driver for Kas. Reiner shifted his eyes to Kas and saw that he was quickly finishing his breakfast. “He still needs to get a few things ready, so if you could please hang tight just for a second…” She came back to the dinning room and strode up to Kas. “Doctor.”

Kas swallowed whatever was in his mouth and raised his hand. “I know. I’ll go take care of my hair.” He quickly ran out the dinning room and Reiner listened as his footsteps went upstairs. After a few minutes, Kas came back, and had actually combed his hair and went over to Marco. “If anything happens while I’m gone, don’t hesitate to tell me. No matter what it is.”

“Okay.”

“Even if it has anything to do with Ms. Jordan,” Dr. Bodt said, concern in his voice.

That’s right. After Dr. Bodt came back home, Annie told him that Adrian was harassing Marco in the library, but when he tried to ask Marco what happened exactly, he insisted it was nothing.

“I’ll be fine, I promise.” Marco smiled at his father. “Don’t worry.”

Kas sighed before leaning down and kissing his son’s cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

As he was finally heading out the door, Annie stood up. That’s right. It was her turn today to accompany him to work. “Thank you for breakfast,” she said as she bowed at Lidia and followed the doctor out.

When there was the sound of the front door closing, Reiner looked at Marco, who was now playing with the last bit of food on his plate. “You okay?”

Marco looked up and smiled at him. “I’m fine.” He turned his attention back to his plate, remaining silent.

-

Marco stared at his math book and back at his papers then at his book again as he was sitting in the first floor of the library, trying once again to understand the formulas Ms. Jordan assigned him before she was here. He really didn’t get… what was it again? Exponents? Yeah, exponents and how you were supposed to multiply or divide or whatever-else-there-is the numbers with them. But he had been given problems like this for three weeks and he knew that the only way to get her to stop with exponential number problems was to finally understand the basic idea.

As he was silently going over the problem, he felt Marshmallow nudge her nose against his chest. “Hey sweetie. Can you do math?” He lowered his book for her to look at. As she sniffed the page, she gave it a lick before suddenly backing away from the book and burying her face against Marco’s stomach. “Me too.” He petted her and tried to focus on the book at the same time. As he was trying to memorize the term for the big number for the exponents, there was the sound of the front door opening.

“Hello Annabelle!! How are you?” Ms. Jordan was here. Marco froze in fear that he was going to get red marks all over his homework again today and that he would be given more later.

“I’m fine. Let me take you’re umbrella.”

“Oh thank you! Is Dr. Bodt here today?”

“No, he had to go to work today.”

“Aw, that’s too bad. I was hoping I could ask him for another prescription for my mom today. I tried calling, but I guess there’s a problem with the phone?”

“Yes, the wire went bad. I can relay the request for you though, or I can just give you a prescription myself.”

“As, thank you! May I go to see Marco now?”

“Yes, let me take him to you.” With that, Marco listened as footsteps began drawing closer and closer to the library.

_Please no, please no, please-_

“Marco, hi!”

Feeling all hope for his math homework dash away, he looked at the door and saw Annabelle standing there with Ms. Jordan, a dark skinned woman with short hair, standing behind her. “H-hi Ms. Jordan,” Marco greeted as he tried to smile at her. Ms. Jordan was one of the more recently hired people, and didn’t know anything about Marco’s epilepsy or nightmare medicine.

Kas usually kept Marco’s epilepsy a secret from most part-time workers, and he told Marco it was because he was afraid that word would get out, and other people would try doing bad things to him. Ms. Jordan didn’t seem like a person who would do something like that though. And her mother was one of his father’s patients, so they knew each other before she came to work. But still, people like the carriage drivers, the occasional gardeners, people who worked repairs around the home, and the tutors who would change every four months and only came by once a week or two – they never knew.

“Awwww, Marshmallow is sitting on your lap and she’s wearing a sweater~” She held her face with her hands as she looked at the rabbit in glee. She loved seeing the rabbits whenever she was over. “Where are the other - Oh there they are! And they’re wearing sweaters too!” She pointed at the stack of books Marco had on the floor, where Cinnamon was sitting on top of while Chocolate was on the floor. “They’re so cute!!” Cinnamon looked at the door and gave her usual disapproval look. “Dawwww, look at her widdle frownie face~”

“Ah- _hem_.”

Ms. Jordan looked at Annabelle. “Oh, right. Math time.”

“Uh, we can focus on the rabbits instead,” Marco said in a last-attempt to not do math.

“Marco,” Annabelle began warning him, “Don’t start acting like your father when it comes to shaving. And I suggest moving to the parlor.”

Marco whined, dreading what was coming. He stood up and picked up his bunnies – he was going to need them for support.

After they changed rooms for the parlor upstairs, Annabelle left them alone, heading to the basement and told Marco to send Reiner down if something happened. Ms. Jordan sat down at the table and took out her books. “You have the homework I gave you last time?”

“Yes,” Marco replied as he held up the sheets.

“Okay, so let me look at them for a minute, and I’ll see how much you improved.” Marco swallowed and hesitantly handed it over to her. Ms. Jordan put on her reading glasses and pulled out her red pen and began looking at it. The first few minutes went by quietly, and she didn’t mark much up. As she continued though, the red pen use had increased. By the time she was finished, Marco was certain that over half of the papers were painted red now.

“… How bad is it?”

“Well, I can say it’s better than before,” She told him as she looked at him.

“… But I’m getting more exponent homework, aren’t I?”

“… Yes.” Marco hung his head, feeling ashamed and distraught. “But you do seem to be starting to understand the concept of how exponents work now! You just need to remember that with negative exponents, you divide one by the base number by the power of whatever the exponent is! That’s was the major problem this time! And if you have zero for an exponent, the answer is ALWAYS one.”

“That doesn’t make any sense though. You don’t have anything to multiply with.”

Ms. Jordan rubbed her temples before pulling out a piece of paper. “You remember that when you multiply two numbers with the same base, you’re basically multiplying their products?”

“I thought it was add the exponents together.”

“It’s both. Anyway, let’s say you use 3 to the power of 1 times 3 to the power of -1. When you add the exponents together, you get zero.” She scribbled the numbers down on a paper for Marco to look at. “When you do the numbers separately though, 3 to the power of 1 is 3, while 3 to the power of -1 is 1/3. When you multiply the two numbers, you get one. Does that make more sense?”

Marco went over her explanation several times before nodding. “Yes… I think.”

“Okay then. If you could open your book up, lets work on a few problems together. And we’re going to start working with roots today, but after we get the other stuff out of the way.”

Marco whimpered at that. As soon as he did, Cinnamon and Chocolate, who were on the floor, jumped on his lap, joining Marshmallow, and they all reached up to nuzzle his face. “Fff, guys, that tickles.”

“Awww, they’re so cute! They’re so cute~” Ms. Jordan looked at the rabbits. “Can I hold them for a while?” Before Marco got a chance to answer, Marshmallow turned around and jumped over to Ms. Jordan, sitting in her lap. “Aw, thank you Marshmallow!” She started petting the white bunny, and her smile grew when Marshmallow eagerly nudged her hand and gave a few licks. “She’s really the social one, huh?”

The other two bunnies sat down on Marco’s lap again, letting Marco talk. “Yeah… but she’s been a bit down since yesterday, and someone has to hold her to keep her happy.”

Ms. Jordan looked up in panic. “WHAT HAPPENED, DID THAT UGLY MAYONAISE MAN KICK HER?!”

“Huh?”

“That other assistant, Adrian-what’s-his-face! Oooooh, if he did, I can promise you that the next time I see that…” She inhaled before continuing talking while still petting Marshmallow, “He’s gonna have some good-old-fashion hot sauce going down his throat!”

“No, no, it wasn’t. There were two delivery boys here two days ago and they had to stay the night. Marshmallow got really attached to one of them while they were here.” As soon as Marco explained the situation to her, Marshmallow let out a bunny-sound of sadness.

“Aw!” Ms. Jordan looked down at Marshmallow. “The poor baby!” She picked Marshmallow and held her to her chest. “Sweet little Marshmallow!” She cuddled with the bunny before holding her up to her face. “Listen here, you are the most cute white bunny on the whole planet, so that boy has to come back to you, understand?”

“Uh… Ms. Jordan…” Marco felt that he should tell her that said boy, Jean, was afraid of bunnies.

“But you must make him pay for breaking your heart! Steal his stuff if you must, but make him pay! You have to make him work to earn your love!” To Marco’s surprise, Marshmallow nodded at her. “Good baby, mmmmm~” Ms. Jordan kissed Marshmallow, making the bunny rub against her face. Setting the bunny down in her lap, Ms. Jordan looked back at Marco. “Okay, let’s get to work.”

“Y-yes ma’am…”

After what felt like half an hour, the door was busted open, surprising both Ms. Jordan and Marco. Turning his head, he saw Lidia standing at the door. “How are things?”

“G-good,” Marco managed to answer.

“Well, in case either of you are getting a little hungry, I fixed a salad and some curry shrimp, and I also made some flan if you wanted something sweet.”

Marco looked at Ms. Jordan. “Well, I suppose it is time for a break,” She stated and stood up, holding Marshmallow.

“Alright, so let me just get a few things upstairs and we can eat!”

“I can help,” Ms. Jordan volunteered and walked out of the room and was right besides Lidia. “So Marco told me that there were two delivery boys staying the night.”

“Oh yes, one of them was rather skinny while the other one had enough on him.”

Marco didn’t pay any attention to the rest of the conversation as he looked back at his math. It looked easier for now… “Psst, Marco!”

“Huh?” Marco looked back at the door and saw Ymir standing there with Krista, Reiner and Bert. “Oh, hi!”

“Come over here,” Ymir ordered as she held up Marco’s liquid medicine. “It’s time to take it!”

“What? If I take it now, I won’t be able to taste anything for lunch!” Marco made a face at the medicine – he hated the way it tasted.

“No room for debate.” Bertholdt walked over to him and undid the bottle’s cap before pulling out a spoon and pouring some of the medicine in it. “Come on, or your dad will get mad at us and you might have a seizure later.”

Knowing that there was no room for him to argue – and figuring that he might as well do what Bertholdt asked, given that Marshmallow gave him a hard time this morning – Marco opened his mouth and Bertholdt gave him the medicine. Marco cringed at the taste, praying that the lunch could override it. “Here.” Krista walked over and gave Marco a glass of water, which he nodded in thanks before drinking it. It helped tone down the taste a bit.

“Oh hey!!” Marco heard Bertholdt moan nervously and saw that Lidia, Ms. Jordan and Marshmallow were back with the lunch. “You guys wanted to join us for lunch?”

“Uh, sure?”

Ms. Jordan smiled at the other servants. “Great!! You guys must really love Lidia’s cooking, huh?”

“Yeah, we do,” Bert answered while hiding Marco’s medicine behind him.

“Okay, lemme help with moving some of the food to the table,” Ms. Jordan stated and brought a few things over. “I guess we decided the right time for a break, huh Marco? I even got some munchies for the bunbuns!” She held up a bowl of berries and vegetables, and Marco noticed that Marshmallow had already started eating some of the berries, since she had some berry stains on her face.

“Thank you.”

As they were eating lunch, Reiner, Krista, and Bertholdt – who hid Marco’s medicine behind some books in the bookcase - kept getting water because they couldn’t handle the curry’s strength that well. It was perfectly fine for Marco – it eliminated the medicine’s taste completely. As soon as he finished the curry and salad, Lidia gave him the flan that was from a recipe that he gave her. It was a recipe that his grandparents and Mamá used a lot when they were alive. It always was nice whenever Lidia fixed something that was from his mother’s side of the family.

“We better get back to the math now,” Ms. Jordan announced after she got her share of flan, “But we can still eat though.”

“Well, in that case we better make sure you two have enough peace and quiet to concentrate.” Lidia took the used plates and started walking out, followed by the others, while Reiner mumbled something about needing to eat some ice cubes.

“Okay, so while the bunnies are eating, let’s finish these remaining problems!” Ms. Jordan smiled at Marco.

“Alright.” After a few minutes, Marco was finally able to do some of the problems by himself. “Okay, this is making a bit more of sense…”

“Then we better get started on the roots!”

Marco whined and placed his head down on the table.

-

Krista was fixing a few things in the library with Reiner when Annabelle walked in. “Did someone give Marco his medicine?”

“Y-yes, just before lunch, when Ms. Jordan went to help Lidia bring lunch up,” Krista immediately answered. She felt Annabelle’s violet eyes study her and Reiner before nodding. “Good. Is Ms. Jordan still here?”

“Yes, but I think they’re almost done though…” With that, Annabelle turned away, presumably to go upstairs. The moment she was gone, Krista let out a sigh of relief. Krista couldn’t tell who scared her more, the doctor or Annabelle.

Dr. Bodt was terrifying in the aspect that he could appear as a kind-hearted goofy father who truly cared for others, yet she knew that he did horrific things, by the screams she would occasionally hear from the basement… and when they met… she didn’t want to recall that moment in her life.

Yet Annabelle… she was unwavering in personality. She had the personality one could easily imagine a killer having… yet her appearance would suggest otherwise. And those eyes… those violet eyes… while they were very beautiful, they always scared her… they seemed to always have a cold look in them.

She looked over at Reiner, who was currently sweeping the floor. As much as she knew it was a horrible thought, Krista couldn’t help but wonder who Reiner thought was more terrifying. He had been here much longer than her, and actually went downstairs, whether it was to fetch either the doctor or his assistant, or to assist them in some way… she didn’t want to imagine with what.

He looked up and noticed that she was looking at him. “Is there something wrong Krista?”

“No!” She raised her hands and waved them. “Just… just thinking!!”

“… Alright…” He looked away for a moment then back at her. “Wait, you’re not feeling bad because of the curry earlier, are you? I swear, that stuff was so strong my mouth was burning inside out.” He stuck his tongue out for a moment. “Ah’ ih sti’ bur’ih,” he strained.

“No, I’m fine… but the curry was pretty strong… the only people I think managed to eat it without needing to drink water because it was too hot was Marco, Lidia and Ms. Jordan… and maybe Ymir…” The freckled girl only needed to refill her glass once while eating lunch.

“What’s in curry again? Chili sauce?”

Krista thought for a moment. “I think it depends on the type of curry? Some places or recipes use chili and others don’t…”

Reiner rolled his tongue a few times. “I pray my insides will be okay…”

Krista shook her head. “You’re a tough boy, you can make it.” She then heard footsteps going down the stairs.

“So I’ll be back in a week, and thanks again for the prescription.”

“No thanks needed. I’ll see that Marco does all of his homework.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Marco.”

Curious, Krista went over to the doorway and saw Ms. Jordan walking down the stairs while Marco and Annabelle were behind her, along with the rabbits in the usual spot. “Oh, are you leaving now Ms. Jordan?”

“Yeah, need to check on my mom and make sure she takes her medicine.” She looked at Marco. “You take care, okay? Don’t let the homework scare you.”

“I’ll try,” Marco replied nervously. Poor boy. Math wasn’t his strongest subject.

“And you~” She leaned down to Marshmallow, “You don’t give up on love, okay?” Marshmallow leaned out and licked her nose. “Daaawwww, I love you too!”

“Let me see you out,” Annabelle offered.

“Thank you very much,” Ms. Jordan said as she continued down the stairs. Krista looked over the stairwell’s railing and watched as Annabelle gave Ms. Jordan her umbrella and watched as she went out.

“How bad was the math this time?” Krista turned back and saw Reiner standing next to Marco and looking down at him.

“… It wasn’t as bad as before…” Marco managed to confess. “Or at least that’s what Ms. Jordan told me…”

“That’s a good thing!” Reiner patted Marco’s shoulder in an effort to encourage him. “You’ve gotten better than what you were before!”

Marco gave a small smile at the taller boy. “Thanks Reiner.” Marco adjusted his bunnies in his arms. “Where’s Ymir and Bertholdt?”

“Bertholdt is fixing one of the parlors, and Ymir is helping Lidia with the dishes.”

“Oh I see. That curry was really good huh?”

Krista nooded and glanced at Reiner, who clearly didn’t have the same thoughts about spicy food that Marco did. He didn’t respond for a while. “… Well, it certainly stood to the standards of good curry…”

Krista cleared her throat and caught both boys’ attentions. “Marco, is there anything you would like to do in the meantime?”

“… Play some chess?”

“Sure.” Krista smiled at him. “Just try to go easier on me than the last time please.”

-

Reiner studied his pieces on the chessboard before picking one of his knights up. “Okay, your turn Marco.” No response for a moment, prompting him to look. Sure enough, Marco had begun nodding off. But before Reiner could do anything, Marshmallow – who was sitting in Marco’s lap – noticed her tired owner and jumped up to his face and clung to it.

That restarted Marco, given the boy gave a sudden jolt. “Mff-Wha?” He reached for Marshmallow and tried to take her off. She refused to come off and instead scooted up to the top of his head before turning around and laying down, placing her paws on Marco’s eyebrows. “Pff, you silly~” Marco gave a small yawn at the end of his sentence.

“You tired?”

“Only a little. I can stay up though. If I fall asleep, Marshmallow will just go bug someone…” Marco rubbed his eyes in an effort to drive away the sleepiness. “Like yesterday and this morning…”

“Well, you better make a move soon.” Reiner pointed back at the chessboard. “Or I’ll have Krista make the move.” He looked over at the blond girl, who was playing with Chocolate at the moment.

“Okay, give me a second…” Marco looked at the chessboard before making a move. “There.”

“Wrong move.” With that, Reiner moved the next piece. “Checkmate.”

“Wait, what?” Marco looked up at Reiner then back down at the chessboard. He made a small pout before looking back at Reiner. “I lost again…”

Reiner chuckled a bit before starting to rearrange the chess pieces. “So that’s two wins for you, six wins for me, and three ties.” Finishing resetting the board, Reiner stood up and stretched a bit. As he did, he heard something starting to bang on wood. Looking over where the sound was coming from, he saw Cinnamon ramming her head into a bookcase’s side, and that she had abandoned whatever she was doing prior to head-butting the bookcase. “Hey, hey, cut that out! You are not a mountain goat!!” Reiner went over to her and tried to pick her up, but she went around the bookcase and started attacking the other side.

“Cinnamon, no!!” Marco, while readjusting Marshmallow, rushed over and tried to grab her, but when he made it over, a picture that was sitting in one of the shelves toppled over from Cinnamon’s final head butt. There was a sound of glass shattering as soon as it landed face down on the floor. “Ah!” Marco quickly picked up Cinnamon before the bunny could accidentally hurt herself on the glass.

“I got it.” Reiner and Marco moved over and Krista came over with a small basket and brush before sweeping up the small pieces of glass and then the picture frame that fell. She took the picture out quickly examined it. “Well, the good news is that the picture is intact.”

“I can hang on to it for now,” Marco offered as he scooted Cinnamon a bit while holding her and Marshmallow. Krista nodded and handed Marco the picture. Reiner peaked over a bit and saw that it was one of the older photos… with Kas and Annabelle.

It was when they were in their late teens in school uniforms, and Kas already had his eye patch and scar, which looked a lot harsher back then. Guess what people say about scars fading with time wasn’t completely wrong.

Annabelle was looking plainly to the camera, hands folded. That didn’t change much. Her hair however was cut short, and she didn’t wear any makeup. Adult Annabelle always had some lipstick and eyeliner on. If it wasn’t for the expression she had in the picture, Reiner might have mistaken her for a sibling… not that she had any from what he understood.

Reiner had to say the really noticeable differences of then and now for Kas besides the scar’s look included that his hair seemed neat… but then again that could have been Annabelle. But then he had no stubble either… but maybe he was a late bloomer with beards. He took a quick glance at Marco. Kas did… look more like Marco back then…

Marco turned around. “I’ll go tell Annabelle that we need to get a new frame for it!” He started heading out, and Reiner saw Chocolate starting to follow him. “Wanna come with me?” Marco bended down to pick the third rabbit up and continued on his way.

“… Do you ever wonder?”

Reiner looked over at Krista, who was looking down at the glass shards she cleaned up. “Huh?”

“If Marco would ever end up the way his father is now…”

Reiner wasn’t sure if he heard the question right. “Wh-what you mean?”

“… Nothing.” She got up and passed him. “I’m just going to take the glass out.” Krista left quietly with that.

Reiner was now the only one in the room and stood there in silence. Kas wasn’t… all that bad… he saved his life, and other lives as well… that and he killed those who abused others. True, the methods were… eccentric in how to take care of them… but compared to what they did, Kas was being merciful… right?

“Reiner?” Hearing his name, he looked over at the door and saw Bert. “You OK? I saw Marco, he told me what happened…”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Krista got to clean the mess before I did though,” Reiner joked on the last part. He watched as Bert stepped in the room before his eyes focused to the taller boy’s ass. It was one damn fine booty. Reiner crept up behind Bert as he was looking through the drawers for something. Then hugged Bert from behind.

“DAH!” Reiner started laughing at Bert’s reaction, getting the boy to look at him. “What was that for?!”

“You have a cute butt, you know that?”

“REINER!” Bert was turning a nice pink shade in embarrassment.

Reiner chuckled some more before letting him go. “Sorry.” Bert turned back around, still flustered. “… Have you thought about it? What I asked you? Telling Kas that we’re… together.”

“… I’m kinda busy right now.” Bert grabbed something before starting to head out.

“You know no one here will judge us, right? And I think Ymir is already starting to catch on.”

Bert glanced back and gave Reiner a small smile. “… I know. It’s just…” Bert looked down.

“Your worried that some part of what we think is wrong…” There was a small nod from Bert. “Well, if we don’t take the risk, we will never know if we’re right or not.”

“… I need to go.” Bert continued on his way. “Love you.”

-

Annie looked at the store’s clock as she stood at the cashier’s desk. 7:34. She glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching her. Yup. Just as expected. Casually straightening her dress’ skirt, she walked out of the store after thanking the employee. Annie listened as the person watching her started following her down the sidewalk. Eventually, she turned into one of the alleys, and continued down deeper. Eventually, the footsteps behind her began getting faster.

_Three, two, one…_

Annie turned around sharply and grabbed her follower’s hand as it swiftly moved to stab her. She watched as the knife fell and then took a careful look at the person. A woman in her mid-thirties, Caucasian, brunette, stared back at her, mouth agape in silent surprise before finally speaking. “LET ME GO! LET ME GO SLUT!”

“What were you planning on doing with that knife? And you’ve been following me from the store…” Annie twisted the woman’s wrists, earning a pained screech. “But I haven’t been the only person you’ve followed out. Am I?”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!”

Annie growled and twisted the woman’s arm a bit more. “I’ll leave that up for my boss to explain.” She reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a syringe Dr. Bodt gave her and immediately stuck it to the woman’s neck. After a few seconds, the woman collapsed. Annie picked her up and went to the door of one of the building in the alley. It quickly opened and Dr. Bodt stood there. “I got her.”

“Good. Bring her in so I can take a good look.” Annie did as she was told and as soon as Dr. Bodt closed the door, she laid the woman down on the floor. “This is her. Morgan Patterson.” Just like he told her.

Dr. Bodt told her that three years ago, two student girls from the school she teaches at were found stabbed, albeit in an amateur manner. Afterwards, three girls from the same neighborhood she lives in were found dead as well, but the person had a better idea on what to do. In the past two years, several woman and girls have been found dead, mutilated in both private areas and breasts. Most of them were attacked in the same area, and four were last seen in the store Annie was in earlier.

However, one girl survived, but was unable to recall the attack. Dr. Bodt had to perform surgery on her several times lately to help repair the area where her breasts were nearly torn off. It didn’t surprise Annie that the girl didn’t recall the event. Why would anyone in their right minds wish to recall such a thing.

She was actually the last patient Dr. Bodt had for today, just after the girl with the broken jaw.

Dr. Bodt picked Morgan up and hauled her over to an open case before placing her in there. He quickly locked the case up and looked at Annie. “I apologize for having to get you involved though Annie.”

“No. It’s better that someone stopped her. And I don’t mind the outfit.” She looked at the dress that she was currently wearing. It didn’t have any straps, leaving her shoulders bare, some of her cleavage was visible in the front, and the skirt ended several inches above the knees. Apparently, all of the women and girls who were attacked were known for wearing clothes that showed skin or were open to sexuality. Clearly Morgan was someone who believed females were suppose to be reserved when it came to such things.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“… A little.”

After a moment, Dr. Bodt took off the jacket he was wearing and placed it over her shoulders. “Here. I don’t want you to catch a cold because of me.”

Annie looked at him for a moment before tightening the coat a bit. “Thank you.” As the doctor turned back to the case and hauled it up, she felt the heat from the coat. It was a pleasant warmth…

“Annie?” Annie looked up. “Is everything really alright?”

“Y-yes, I was just daydreaming about something.” She walked up to him and followed him out. Exiting the abandoned building, they made their way through several other alleys before arriving back at their carriage.

“Ever’ thin’ ar’ight?” Annie looked at William. He was 21 years old, and had some kind of speech problem, usually causing him to slur or cut his words short, depending on how he was feeling. Other than that, he was nice, and he ws engaged to his girlfriend.

“Yeah, just a little worn out for today,” Annie replied.

“You shu’?”

_He means ‘you sure’._

“Yeah, thank you for thinking of me though.”

William smiled happily before Annie got on after Dr. Bodt. The ride home didn’t take that long, since the rain decided to take a break, but the ground was still muddy as ever.

Arriving back home, Annie got off and watched Kas get off with both his stuff he took back from the hospital and the other case. “Thank you very much William. Do you need anything before heading home?”

“No sir. I’ll b’ fi’ on way home.”

William waited till both Dr. Bodt and Annie were at the front door before gently talking to the horses and having them go.

Annie saw a widening smile on Dr. Bodt’s face. “I’m glad he found someone who he loves.” He opened the door and let Annie go in first.

“Finally!” Annie looked to the side and saw Annabelle walking out of the dinning room. “It’s already 8:42, took you long enough to get out of work!” She looked Dr. Bodt straight into the eyes. “… Unless there was… something else.”

“Yes. I got something for studying downstairs.”

With that, Annabelle’s eyes fell to the case he was carrying. “… I’ll take it downstairs and prepare everything.” Dr. Bodt nodded and handed the case over. “There’s some dinner saved for you, and it’s still warm.”

“Thank you.” Before Annabelle walked far off, he quickly asked. “Were there any seizures today? Myoclonic jerks?”

“Thankfully no. He took his medicine during the afternoon. Marco still needs to take the nighttime medicine, but he fell asleep at the dinner table while eating dessert.”

Dr. Bodt looked over at the door and walked in. As he was trying to pass the door, there was the sudden familiar squealing from Marshmallow. “Frrm!” Annie walked over and saw that Marshmallow had launched herself onto Dr. Bodt’s face… again. “Hello.”

“Sorry about her!” Annie watched as Bertholdt got up and took Marshmallow off of the doctor’s face. As soon as he did, Marshmallow snuggled against his face. “She’s still… needy.”

“Mmm, I see.” Dr. Bodt then walked over to the table and stood next to Marco. Marco was slumping against the table, his dessert halfway finished right next to him. There was a warm-hearted laugh from his father. “How long has he been asleep?”

“For the last few minutes. He was tired earlier, but he stayed up so that he could keep Marshmallow company.” While Bertholdt was explaining, Marshmallow made her way to the top of his head and staying there.

“I see.” Annie watched as Dr. Bodt reached for Marco’s forehead and brushed some hair away with his fingers. “He’s so cute whenever he’s like this. Reminds me when he was younger…”

“Must have been good times.”

“… It was.” Dr. Bodt carefully picked Marco up. “I never get tired of this.” Holding his son close while making sure he was in a comfortable position, Dr. Bodt began leaving. “I’ll be taking him to bed and see if I can wait long enough to give him his medicine before I eat… Oh!” Annie saw him look down at his feet and saw that Cinnamon and Chocolate had ran up to him. “I’m sorry, I thought you two were having dessert!” There was the usual grunt from Cinnamon. “Bertholdt, if you can help me bring them to the bedroom, I would appreciated it.”

“I got it,” Bertholdt told him as he picked both bunnies up before reuniting them with the third one.

As they both disappeared, Annie went to the kitchen. “Annie, welcome back.” Lidia walked up to her. “Oh, what a lovely dress! Did Dr. Bodt get you that?”

“… Yeah. We were shopping for a while…”

“He’s so nice.” Lidia then gave her a plate that had some shrimp in a sauce that smelled… spicy. “I made plenty of curry shrimp for today and tomorrow, so don’t hesitate to ask for seconds, okay?”

Annie, taking a mental note to have plenty of water, nodded. “Thank you.” She took the plate and went back to the dinning room. As she was sitting down, she heard an interested hum. She glared at the other side of the table. “Ymir.”

Ymir grinned. “Sorry. But you look hot in that dress.”

Annie sighed. That girl was definitely a lesbian.

-

Marco shifted, feeling the softness of his bed beneath him… wait. He was having dessert just now, right? Confused, Marco forced his eyes to open. “Mmm?” Blinking them several times, he found himself staring at the ceiling. “… Wha?”

“You’re awake?”

Marco sat up and saw Papá sitting at the edge of the bed, holding Marshmallow in his lap, and that there was a candle next to him, providing light in the room. “Papá! You’re back! Wait, what time is it?”

“It’s almost midnight. You fell asleep in the dining room before I got back, but I still got to carry you to bed.”

“What?!” Marco collapsed back on the bed and brought his blankets over his head, thoroughly embarrassed. “Ahhh~”

Papá made a small laugh. “It’s perfectly fine! Although…” Marco took his blankets down and peered at Papá. “I have to say… Marshmallow has been rather demanding for attention ever since I got back. And so she has made me stay here under the demand I attend to her needs.” Marco noticed that Papá was petting her just before she yawned. “She’s beginning to fall asleep though.”

“Sorry…”

“No need to apologize.” Papá looked up at Marco and gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s nice to hold her on my lap for a while… although I am concerned about what could be causing the new behavior. I don’t think anyone wants her to take a more drastic change.”

Marco sat up again. “… She misses Jean.”

Papá though for a moment before replying. “The taller delivery boy from yesterday?”

“Yeah, she was taking a liking to him…” Marco held his chin with one of his hands. “I never figured she would have though… especially since he wasn’t really a rabbit person himself…”

“Hmmm… I see…” Papá looked down at Marshmallow. “Okay, she’s finally asleep.” He carefully picked her up, trying not to wake her, and scooted up to the window ledge and placed her in her little bed. “Hopefully she’ll be asleep for the rest of the night.”

“I agree.” Marco looked out the window, hoping for any signs of stars or the moon. None. Just darkness.

_At least there’s no rain…_

“Marco.” He looked back at Papá. He was holding both the liquid and pill medicine for his seizures.

“Oh. Right.” Marco held his hand out for the pills, feeling them land in his palm before bringing his hand to his mouth. Papá handed him a glass of water before he swallowed. As soon as the pills went down, he watched as Papá undid the cap for the liquid stuff and measured it before holding the spoon out. “… Can I have some chocolate syrup with it?”

“And destroy the taste of the chocolate?”

“… Good point.” He opened his mouth and swallowed the medicine before making a face at the taste. “Can there be a tastier medicine I can take?”

“… Nothing that’s safe or effective.” Kas placed the cap back on the bottle. “But there’s still a chance that in a few years, you won’t be needing the medicine. There have been cases where a person’s seizures stop after several years, usually after they become an adult…”

“… If it’s not one of the syndromes that make it for life… or it can just goes away for a while before coming back…” Marco hugged his legs in as he said that. After he came back, Papá explained the epilepsy situation a bit more to him. There were various different syndromes related to epilepsy – different diagnosis for what seizure types the person experiences. And if the person withdraws from taking the medicine after a long amount of time with no seizures, they seizures will probably come back.

… He was also told that the syndrome that matched the symptoms of Marco’s epilepsy was Juvenile Myoclonic Syndrome, which usually was life long…

There was a hesitant sigh from Papá. “Yes.” He moved so that he was next to Marco and held him close. “You’re very brave, for making it this far. I’m very proud of you for that. And I know your mother is too. She wouldn’t want you to give up on any hope. Don’t forget, even though she coughed up blood due to her illness, she kept fighting. She didn’t want the bad things in her life to win.”

“… You’re right. Mamá didn’t.”

“You can make it. Don’t let the bad things in your life win.”

“… I’ll try.”

Papá gave him a small kiss on the forehead. “Well, time for you to get some sleep.” He made sure Marco was completely laid down before drawing the blankets back up. “Here you go,” Papá said as he placed Conejito next to him.

“Thank you.”

Papá smiled at him. “Hopefully Conejito will be enough company for Marshmallow if she wakes up before you and the other two in the morning.”

“Me too.”

Papá made a small chuckle before his face became a bit more serious. “… Marco… what did you think of the delivery boys?”

Marco didn’t reply for a moment, caught by surprise by the question. “Well… they were… very interesting…”

“You felt safe around them?”

“Yeah, I did… besides, the bunnies kept scaring Jean, so I don’t think they were any kind of threat.”

“Ah, right…” After a moment, Papá asked another question. “Marshmallow isn’t the only one who took a liking though, is she?”

“… No. I enjoyed having two other kids my age here who aren’t servants. And I enjoyed talking to them… That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy being with everyone else here though! I love the people who are here!”

“Marco, don’t worry, I understand…” Papá stroked some of Marco’s hair with his hand. “I’m sorry for asking these questions all of the sudden, especially when you should be getting some sleep… I was a little too curious.” He smiled gently and leaned down and gave Marco a goodnight kiss. “See you in the morning.” He got up and picked up the candle, quietly walking out of the room.

Hearing his father’s footsteps go further away, Marco closed his eyes, and quickly drifted off.

-

Annie made her way down the stairs, carrying a few things Dr. Bodt asked her to bring. She had already changed back to her usual clothes, but she had put her new dress in the closet for use in the future. Walking up to the lab’s door, she knocked on it three times. “Come in!” Hearing the doctor’s permission, she came in. Oddly, no doctor. “The other room room!” Ah, he was further in. Going through the next few doors, she finally was in the same room Dr. Bodt was in. “Thank you again Annie.” He went up to her and took the needles he asked for.

She then saw Morgan on one of the tables, strapped down, in a simple gown to keep her from being too exposed. “Surprised she hasn't woken up.”

“The chemical I had you inject her with was a strong one… however, I have another thing to get her to wake up.” He went back to the table, the opposite side of Morgan, and held a syringe that was among the ones Annie brought and injected something into Morgan. After several minutes, the brunette came to.

“Wh-WHERE THE HELL AM I?!” She started squirming in an effort to get out of her binds, looking around before laying eyes on Annie, instantly glaring at her. “YOU! HORRIBLE SLUT!! WHERE DID YOU TAKE ME?! I’LL HAVE YOU ARRESTED!!”

“Do not call Annie a slut.” Morgan froze and slowly turned her head to see Dr. Bodt. “Morgan Patterson. Teacher at a more or less decent public school. Your first victims were two girls. Then three victims in your neighborhood. Eventually, you started doing your practice in the city, where it would be harder to tack a single person to a set of kills...”

“I-I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT!”

“Really. I did a bit of research. The first two victims, you tried to expel them from the school. Simply over the fact that they were… what was the exact words again? Flaunting their bodies in… a repulsive manner, as if in heat?”

Morgan’s lips pursed angrily. He was almost there.

“The next three victims were also subjects to slut-shaming from you. You complained to the police about them setting a bad example for the kids in the neighborhood. As of what I understood, they hadn’t murdered anyone, used drugs, or discriminated people in any way. That sounds like the opposite of a bad example.”

“One of them was a stripper!”

“That was her choice. She was not forcing people to come see her performances.” He then turned away. “After them, you targeted both women who were sex workers and those who were comfortable with being sexual… But let’s focus on the only one who you failed to kill. Lily. Not sure if you’re aware of her name. Probably not.”

As he went over to another table, he began shifting though the different things. “I had several talks with her. Kind girl. Little brother named Mike. He came by the other day, with her father. He’s a good person. Didn’t criticize her for anything. Didn’t blame her for what happened. He simply wants her to get better… physically and mentally.” His voice began growing darker. “The girl may not remember what happened, but she keeps having night terrors. The hospital gave her some medicine to help her cope, but it’s been an exhausting challenge to her.” Grabbing something, he went back over to Morgan. “… And then you target Annie based on her look. What makes you think you have the right to take a person’s life based on how they view themselves?”

“… Those whores… are useless! They just want attention!”

“No. They want to be comfortable with themselves. That includes whether or not they announce out loud of they are sexual beings. As long as they do not force their beliefs onto others, they are perfectly fine. You though…” He raised up a buzz saw that he held it up for Morgan to see. Judging by how her eyes widened and she began squirming again, she noticed. “You killed people when they didn’t conform to your views.”

He was about to start the saw when he looked up at Annie. “You don’t have to stay for this part.”

“… Thank you.” Annie began leaving when Annabelle came through one of the doors that led even deeper in the basement.

“Annabelle. Did you get the iceboxes?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. I’m going to begin cutting…”

Annie was almost out of the basement when she heard one last thing.

“By the way… before you woke up, I gave you something that will keep you awake. People sometimes faint when in excruciating pain… but Lily didn’t pass out. You will stay awake for all of this. Just like she did.”

The sound of the buzz saw began. “NO! STOP!! GET THA-AHHHH!!” Morgan’s shriek that was coupled with the familiar sounds of flesh and bone being cut horribly into was almost satisfying to Annie. She stood at the door before closing it and quickly hurried off to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I REFUSE TO LET THE MARSHBO SHIP SINK.
> 
> WHEEE, WE HAVE SEEN SOME PERSONALITY FOR THE SERVANTS, AS WELL AS SOME REIBERT!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, sorry this came so late. the last few weeks haven't been all that great for me, so i had to take some time off from writing...

Eren was sleeping comfortably in his bed when he felt himself stir, returning to reality. Great. Time to get up. As he opened his eyes, several dark figures loomed over his bed. Before he had the chance to react to that, the curtains were pulled back, letting the light stream in, temporary blinding him. “AHH!” He grabbed his blankets and pulled them over his head in self-defense.

“Surprise!” The blankets were torn off and – after his eyes painfully adjusted to the new light in the room – he saw his whole family standing over him, his mom holding a birthday cake while his dad and sister were holding a few presents. “Happy Birthday!”

“Couldn’t this be done downstairs?” Eren forced himself up only for Jean – the dog – to jump on top of him before licking all over his face. “AHH!” As soon as Jean finished licking him, he collapsed on Eren. “Jean…” The german shepherd looked at Eren with puppy eyes, and Eren sighed in defeat as he let the large dog snuggle with him, keeping him pinned down.

“Yeah, but we decided to wake you up instead,” Mom told him as she got Jean to move off a bit so Eren could sit up. “Make a wish!”

Eren sighed before blowing out the candles on his cake and his mom lifted it up before Jean tried to lick the frosting. “Thanks.” Then several gifts were shoved into his arms. “Wha?” He looked up at Mikasa in confusion.

“Open them up.”

“Okay…” Eren carefully undid the wrapping paper for all of them, and when he was done, he set them aside. “Thanks.”

“Well, you better get ready for work.” His mom and dad began walking out of the room. “And I don’t want anyone eating any cake until tonight!!”

There was clear whine from Jean as he looked at mom. “Sorry buddy. No cake this morning,” Eren told the dog sympathetically. He looked up at Mikasa, surprised she was still in the room. “What?”

“Did you talk to Jean last night?”

Oh, that’s right. “Uh, no. Slipped my mind. So-”

“He should still be in his room. Check on him.” With that, she went out of his bedroom.

Eren looked over at the window and opened it up, placing the crossing-board in place and went over to Jean’s window. It was open, as usual, but Eren had the decency to knock, since the curtains blocked the room. “Jean? You there?” There was suddenly a few barks from inside Jean’s room and dog-Eren poked his head out. Then, dog-Jean ran up to him excited, bumping into Eren and making the boy begin to loose his balance. “Ah-Aahhh-AHHHHH!!” Eren felt his body go to the side just before something grabbed his hand and brought him to the window ledge, and his face landed against something soft.

“Are you okay Eren?!” Eren looked up and saw Jean standing there, holding his hand.

“… Uh… would be better if we weren’t standing on the window ledge when either one of us could fall and take the other one down.” Eren glanced behind him, noting that the board was seconds away from plummeting.

“Hold on.” Jean stepped back and let Eren into his room. He reached for the board and pulled it into the room, placing it to his own board. “Guess we need to set up a cross walk for the dogs at this rate,” Jean commented as he looked at the two dogs as they snuggled up against each other.

“Yeah.” Eren looked up at Jean and studied his face. “You sleep okay, or did you have a rough night?”

“I slept OK…”

“… Even though your dad came by?”

Jean didn’t answer before sitting down on the bed. “… Yeah. Somehow.” Jean’s dad swung by unexpected, this time trying to get Jean to go to some kind of ‘correction’ thing for people who were queer. The yelling between the two lasted until Mikasa went over there and dragged his dad out. After she came back, she told Eren that this time it was getting physical this time and to check on Jean, but by the time Eren was going to, Jean left to go on a walk. He tried waiting for him to come back, but Eren fell asleep before then.

Eren sat down next to Jean. “… Do you wanna skip work today? I can tell Shadis that you had to stay home today.”

“Nah, my dad will just come by again if he finds out I’m here instead.” Jean raised his left hand and ruffled his hair with it, and Eren saw a bruise on the back of it, close to the fingers. Probably from the fight with his dad.

“... Then how about sleeping over at my place tonight? We have cake.”

“You mean birthday cake?” Jean looked at him with interest.

“Yeah, but my mom doesn’t want anyone to have any until tonight,” Eren admitted.

“That’s fine.”

“AHHHHH!!” There was the sound of running before both of Jean’s sisters came in and jumped on the bed. “Jean! Help! The cat has started eating Lance!”

“What do you guys mean by eating?”

“He tried to pet her and she suddenly bit his ear when he called her fat!”

Jean sighed before getting up. “I’ll go help.” He went out of the room, leaving Eren with the two girl. “Lance, where are you?”

“My bedroom-OW!”

“Hold still for a second…” That was followed by the sound of Jeanbo yowling angrily. “OW!” There was a moment of silence before Jeanbo came into Jean’s bedroom. Both dogs yelped as Jeanbo jumped on the bed, before turning to see Eren – the human – and growling suddenly. “What’s going on, Cat?” Jean came back, rubbing his hand that seemed to have been scratched or bitten, with Lance hiding behind him without his glasses. “What the heck is your Problem? Jeez.”

“Maybe an alien has stolen the real Jeanbo and is trying to take her place.”

“Nah, that’s not it,” Eren said. He then noticed the bulge on her belly. “… Uuuh, how much has she been eating lately?”

“She keeps sneaking into the fridge, and she also ate salmon right off our dinner plates in the last three days,” Emma told Eren. “But we’re trying to keep her on a diet so she won’t get fat.” When Emma said fat, Jeanbo turned to face her and hissed.

“… Is it just the belly that’s getting bigger, or has she been getting larger everywhere?”

Emma shrugged. “Dunno. Why?”

“… I think there’s a chance that Jeanbo might be pregnant.”

“… Say that again Jaeger?”

“Pregnant. You know, eating a lot to feed the fetuses, getting extra-cranky?”

“Wha?! But she hasn’t come in contact with any other cats for two months!”

“… Didn’t she disappear for two hours before showing up in the backyard though? Like, two weeks ago?”

There was an awkward silence before Lily squealed. “We’re going to have kitties! We’re going to have kitties!” She hopped of the bed and ran out. “Mommy! Jeanbo is going to have kitties!!”

Eren groaned. This was too early for any of this. Especially for his birthday. He didn’t even have breakfast yet.

-

“Marshmallow, get out of the teapot.” Ymir was having a staring contest with the white rabbit as she was sitting in the teapot that she just got out for breakfast. There was a sound of refusal from the rabbit though as she gave Ymir eyes that were begging her to hold her. “Ghhhhh, is Marco up yet?”

“No, he’s still sleeping,” Krista answered from the stove. “Can’t you just take her out on your own? The water’s ready.”

“Argh,” Ymir groaned. “If I pick her up, she’s gonna demand me to hold onto her until Marco is here. If I try putting her down before then, she’s gonna interrupt whatever I’m doing by whatever means possible!! Or are you already forgetting what she has been doing in the last few days?” It had been a week since the delivery boys left after staying the night, and Marshmallow’s neediness had not gone down since then. Instead, it seemed to increase. She would wake up earlier than usual before suddenly bursting into any of the servants’ room. As much as Ymir was glad she didn’t go out only to show up indoors after a two-hour search, the new pattern was equally as annoying.

“Hey, sorry I took too long.” Ymir saw Bertholdt walking into the kitchen holding a few things. “I had to help Annabelle and Dr. Bodt with… things.” Ah, that’s right. Things.

“You, hold Marshmallow.” She pointed to the small bunny, who saw Bertholdt and made a small sound.

“Wha? No, I-”

“Shut it. And pick her up already.” Ymir narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m too damn tired to not give a shit about how much my wrist will hurt if I hit you.”

There was a moan from the tall boy as he finally picked Marshmallow up from the teapot. Marshmallow squealed in delight and nuzzled whatever she could, licking him. “You better take up my laundry duty later.”

“Whatever. I already got Annie’s bathroom duty.” Annie was dealing with menstrual cramps, so she was going to be in bed as long as she wanted. And knowing Annie, that might as well be all day. Or until the menstruation was done overall, since the doc was nice enough to give people time off when they needed it.

She turned back to the teapot and took it over to the sink to wash it. As soon as she finished, she went to where they kept the tealeaves and placed some black tea leaves in the pot’s strainer before going over to Krista. “Here.”

“Thank you,” The shorter girl said as she poured water into the pot. “Now I just need to get the batter for the crepes. If I burn the stuff like I did last time, Lidia might insist on me being banned from the kitchen without her.”

The older lady had left for her weekly break two days ago, which meant one less person to distract Marshmallow. She would be back in five days, but her absence was already taking a toll on everyone else.

“How are – Ahhh – things here?” Ymir looked over her shoulder and saw Reiner walking in, stretching.

“Bert’s taking care of Marshmallow, and the tea is almost ready – we going to fix crepes, so help me get the berries and whatever we can have with it.”

There was another yawn from Reiner as he nodded. “Got it.” As he went over to the pantry, he suddenly slapped Bertholdt’s rear end, earning a sudden shriek.

The taller boy glared at Reiner, turning a bright red. “REINER!!”

“What?”

“Don’t do that ever again!!”

“Do what?” Reiner rubbed his eyes before realization struck. “OH! So-sorry! Thought that was a drawer open!”

Bertholdt slumped his head. “Don’t do that again.”

Ymir watched out of the corner of her eyes. She didn’t believe Reiner’s excuse – those two had to be together… and Bert was most certainly bottom.

… But given what she heard of Bert’s parents, she wasn’t going to confront him about it. That was his personal mess to wrangle with.

-

“Marco, time to get up.”

Hearing Annabelle’s voice, Marco opened his eyes and saw her standing in front of his bed, “Good morning…” Marco stretched before looking over at his rabbits, seeing one of the beds empty. “Marshmallow got up before me again?”

“Yes, but Bertholdt has her right now.”

“I’m sorry,” Marco apologized as he got out of bed.

“No need to worry about it now.” Annabelle ushered him over to the bathroom. “But let’s make sure that she gets plenty of exercise outside today, alright? It’s finally dry outside again.”

“Alright,” Marco chirped happily. “And today is Papá’s off-day, right?”

“Yes, but please, be presentable anyway. Unlike him.”

“Okay.”

The bath was quick, and Annabelle gave him a simple outfit before taking out the pills for Marco to take. As Marco swallowed them with some water, he heard some noise from his bedroom. Marco quickly went out and saw Cinnamon and Chocolate doing their usual mischief with the bed. As Chocolate was pulling the blankets out of the bedroom, Cinnamon was rolling one of the pillows out. “Hey, stop that!” Both bunnies turned to face him.

“What are they doing now, Marco?” As soon as Cinnamon heard her voice, she urged the pillow out at a faster rate, which got Chocolate to start running with the blankets in tow. As soon as Annabelle was outside the bathroom, she saw the last bit of blanket disappear out the door. “They’ve done it again.”

“Sorry,” Marco apologized.

Annabelle sighed as she started heading out. “I hope that being outside will be enough for them today.” She rushed out of the room, Marco following close behind. He saw the blanket trail right around the stairs, Annabelle following close behind. “Don’t push that over – You pushed it over the railing.”

Oh. Cinnamon had a habit of pushing whatever she was taking downstairs over the stair rails just to save the effort with moving stuff on the trip. Marco finally reached the stairs and watched as Annabelle picked Cinnamon and Chocolate up, leaving the blankets on the floor while the pillow was nowhere in sight. “Let me take them.” Marco went down the steps and Annabelle handed him the two bunnies. “You two cause so much trouble so early~” Chocolate nudged his nose against his neck, making Marco giggle.

“Marco, please head down for breakfast. I’ll take care of the blankets.”

“What about the pillow?”

“Hang on to it until I come down to get it.” With that, she bended down to pick up the blankets and began walking back up.

Marco stood there before continuing his way down – the pillow had fallen all the way down to the first floor and he immediately picked it up when he saw it – and went to the kitchen, and he smelled the familiar smell of crepes being cooked. “Good morning!”

“Hhhhh, morning,” Ymir answered when she saw him. “Why are you holding a pillow?”

“Cinnamon pushed it over the rail for the staircase.”

“Fort building again.”

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Krista is fixing some breakfast, Reiner is grabbing few things from the garden, and Annie is going to sleep in because of cramps.” She then pointed a spoon she was using to mix something to the direction of the dining room. “Bert’s got Marshmallow. I suggest you go rescue him from her fluffy paws before she takes him as her husband.”

“Alright.” Marco headed to the dining room and saw a groaning Bertholdt lying there on the floor with Marshmallow on his chest. “I’m sorry Bertholdt!” He quickly made it to the fallen boy and picked Marshmallow off, feeling her snuggled against him and the other two bunnies and pillow.

“Thank you,” Bertholdt managed to say. He managed to stand up on his feet and looked at Marco. “Did you get enough sleep?”

“Yeah, Annabelle got me up. But Cinnamon and Chocolate stole the blankets and a pillow from the bed while I was getting ready,” Marco indicated by shuffling the pillow in his arms.

“Again?” Bertholdt looked down at the rabbits with wide eyes. “When will they stop?!”

“Same day I can trust Kas to groom himself without being told.” Marco and Bertholdt looked at the door and saw Annabelle entering the room. “Marco, give me the pillow.”

“Yes ma’am.” Marco adjusted the bunnies and handed the pillow to her. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Just make sure the rabbits don’t go into the parlors today,” She stated firmly. “And don’t let Chocolate eat anything during breakfast. That includes the crepes.”

“I understand.” Annabelle was about to walk away when Marco spoke again. “Is it okay if I fix some dulce de leche to go with the crepes?”

“It would take too long. Maybe for dessert though.”

“Ahh!” There was a crash from outside, making Marco jump. Annabelle rolled her eyes before heading out.

“Doctor.”

“What? Ow!”

There was a groan from Annabelle as she came back in the dinning room, pulling Papá in by holding his ear. “Marco, please make sure your father doesn’t get into any more trouble while I go do a few things.” She released him, and he rubbed the now freed ear. Annabelle then went to the kitchen, leaving the three males in the room.

“Papá, did you hurt yourself on the stair again?”

“Not really,” Papá assured Marco with a half-smile. “It was a shorter fall than most days.” He stretched before hugging Marco and giving him a small kiss. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, although Marshmallow got up early again, and Cinnamon and Chocolate took a few things out of the bedroom.”

Papá gave a small chuckle. “I see. At least we can let them run loose outside for a while… although…”

Marco cocked his head to the side. “What?”

“… It’s about the time of year where I have to give both you and your rabbits… the s-h-o-t-s.”

_Oh no._

Papá always gave Marco his shots, except when Marco was with his grandparents, and since Papá went to a veterinary school, he also gave shots to his rabbits. While Marco had gotten use to them by now, the rabbits were another matter.

Chocolate wouldn’t be happy, but he would allow Papá to give him the shot as long as he got to eat during the process. Marshmallow would throw a bigger fuss about it, and would give Papá a look that just begged him not to, and in the end someone else would have to pet her through the ordeal… but given how she has been in the last few days, there was the chance that it was going to be crazier this time. Cinnamon… she made the biggest fuss of all the rabbits. She would try everything to escape, so usually Papá or someone would have to sneak up on her before holding her down and give the shot as quick as possible. And then she would attack them.

Marco looked at his rabbits quickly, who looked at him in confusion. They understood what shots meant for them, but they didn’t know what the letters spelled out meant. “It’s gonna be fine buddies.” Marco tried to smile at them in an effort to assure them before looking back up at Papá. “So, you’re going to be free this whole day, right? Because you’re going to be home.”

Kas rubbed his neck before answering. “Well, mostly. Annabelle placed an order for a few things we need, and the delivery will be coming to the house. I’ll need to put the delivery away so that I can use the tools for a few things that need to be done.”

“… Oh. I see.” Marco felt a bit of sadness there. Papá usually went to the basement to put his things away and sort them out, and that always took a while. And if he had something to do, there was a chance that he would spend several hours down there.

_Guess I won’t be able to spend that much time with him today._

“But I can spend time with you outside until then. And I promise to come back as soon as I’m done looking at the tools.” Papá gave him a reassuring smile as he said that.

“Really?”

“Really. And I don’t think Marshmallow would be happy if I suddenly left, let alone for the rest of the day,” Papá joked as he looked at the bunnies.

Marco couldn’t help but giggle. “No, she wouldn’t be.”

He then suddenly felt his arm jerk, startling him and his bunnies as they were nearly dropped accidentally. Papá suddenly frowned in concern. “Marco? Bertholdt, take the rabbits for a moment.”

“Yes sir.” Bertholdt swiftly picked up the bunnies from Marco’s arms, even though they tried to stay with Marco.

A few seconds after they were taken away, Marco’s arm jerked again. It was the myoclonic seizures. “Marco, please sit down,” Papá told him in a worried voice. Marco felt Papá guide him over to one of the chairs, feeling his arms and shoulders continue to spasm. “Bertholdt, go grab his medicine for me.”

“Right away.”

There was the sound of Bertholdt rushing out of the room as Papá stayed with Marco. “Marco, is this the first set of seizures to happen today?”

“Yes,” Marco answered, his neck starting to move, causing him to involuntarily move his head side to side for a while.

“Nothing while you were asleep?”

“No, I don’t thinks so.” Suddenly, his right foot jerked out, hitting his father’s leg, causing him to wince in pain. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry Papá!”

“It’s not your fault,” Papá assured him, “Let’s worry more about you.”

The kitchen door then opened, and the others rushed in. “What’s going on?” Krista looked at Marco with worry.

“I’m-I’m just having some jerks, that’s all-” He accidentally kicked Papá again. “Sorry!”

“No need to apologize.” There was some noise outside the room as Bertholdt and Annabelle came in. “Marco, I think we need to adjust the liquid medicine dosage again.”

“Wait, I thought the myoclonic seizures were the least-harmless seizures,” Ymir said in confusion. “Why does he need medicine now?”

“Sometimes, they’re warning signs for the more serious seizures, and I prefer not to take chances.”

“Here.” Bertholdt handed Papá the liquid medicine with the measuring spoon.

“Thank you.” Papá measured the liquid medicine and offering it to Marco. Not having any other choice, Marco opened his mouth and swallowed the medicine. As he forced the first spoonful down, he saw Papá fill the spoon halfway up and hold it back up to him. Again, Marco obeyed.

When the second amount went down his throat, Reiner handed him a glass of water to wash it all down. “Here.” Marco nodded in thanks and reached for it. But as he was pulling it towards him, his fingers twitched, causing him to drop the glass. Reiner managed to grab it before it hit the floor, but the water spilled on him.

“I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay.” Reiner stood up, giving him a reassuring smile. “At least it was water and not tea.”

Marco bit his lower lip, feeling terrible for the trouble that he was the cause of.

After several minutes, the seizure seemed to have finally stopped. “Marco,” Papá said gently as Marco finally got some water. “Please don’t go beyond the garden outside today. I think it would be too risky.”

Marco swallowed a gulp of water before answering. “Alright.” Papá would worry if he went to the forest that was right behind the house. It was rather big, the ground was uneven and rocky, and there was a huge river that went through. If he did end up having one of his more serious seizures there, then he would probably get a concussion from just falling. Honestly, that was one of the scariest things he could think of that might happen to him.

He remained quiet as Papá asked Reiner to hang on to the medicine in case if there were any more seizures.

-

“ARGH!” Jean looked over at where Eren was, and saw that Connie had just dumped some glitter onto him. “Connie!”

“Ah ha ha ha!” Connie pointed at Eren as he laughed. “God, your face!” Connie held his stomach as he laughed.

Jean fought back the urge to snicker when he took a long look at Eren. Eren had gotten the glitter in his hair, shirt, and face, and it’s sky blue color contrasted perfectly with his now red face. Eren stomped away from the laughing baldy and went to the bathroom, slamming the door shut.

“Nooo, don’t wash away the birthday sprinkles!”

“SHUT UP!” There was the sound of the faucet turning on in the bathroom with that order.

There were a few final snickers from Connie before he looked over at Jean. “You guys planning anything?”

“No,” Jean said sternly while raising an eyebrow, “Why are you asking me?”

“Oh I just thought that since you two live next to each other, you guys might have decided to go out for dinner together.”

Jean narrowed his eyes. “Eren and I are not together.”

“Yet… Or I could start to date him for you.” Connie smirked as he said that.

“And Mikasa would probably list all of the terms that would result in decapitation if violated,” Jean answered before turning his eyes to the list of deliveries.

“Mmm, good point. Never mind.”

There was then a faint knock at the door. Jean looked up and saw Armin standing there. “Hey, can I come in?”

“Uh, yeah sure.” Armin walked in, carrying a bag. “You looking for Eren?”

“Yeah, I got him a few birthday presents.”

“One sec.” Jean got up and went over to the bathroom door and knocked. “Eren, it’s Armin. He’s got something for you.”

“Gimme a moment!” After the faucet turned off, Eren came out, patting his hair dry with a towel. “Hey.”

“Hi. Happy birthday,” Armin said in a chip tone as he rushed over and showed Eren the bag.  “Got you presents, and you can feel free to open them!”

“Thanks. Let’s sit down so I can actually do that.” Eren and Armin went over to Eren’s work desk, and the shorter boy handed Eren the bag. Eren pulled out two wrapped presents – a green and a yellow one, like Eren’s eye colors, and a cardboard box from one of the nearby bakeries – Jean prayed that there was enough food for Eren, him and Sasha. “Which one do you want me to open first?”

“The yellow one,” Armin said in an innocent tone.

“Okay.” Eren tore off the wrapping paper before looking at it. “… Uh… what is this?”

Jean leaned in their direction. “What? What is what?” He saw Eren turn around, holding a book that had a woman and a guy in stripping outfits with the title “Beauty among Both”. Jean felt blood rush to his face before rushing over. “Armin, you have some good taste.”

“Why did I expect any different,” Eren mumbled and gave Jean a done look.

“Open it!” Armin had a huge grin on his face as he said that.

“WH-WHAT?! NO!”

“Okay, then I will.” Armin took the book back and opened it to the center, landing on a shot of a woman doing the splits in a bikini while on the other page there was a sleek man directing his ass to the reader. Damn, that was one fine booty.

“LEMME SEE LEMME SEE!” Connie rushed over and looked at the pictures. “How does anyone get their body into that position?” He leaned in to the woman’s picture as he asked, turning a pink shade.

Jean shrugged. “Ask Mikasa, maybe she’ll know.” He then glanced over at Eren and saw a huge flush on his face, probably moments away from a nosebleed. “You like this Jaeger?”

Eren took the book from the table and suddenly slammed it shut before glaring at Armin. “Do you know how much trouble we’ll be in if Shadis catches any of us looking at this?!”

“Why do you think I came over while he was out?” Armin put on a completely innocent face as he stated that simply.

Eren groaned. “Please don’t tell me the other present is another one like this.”

“It’s not. I promise.”

Jean watched with interest Eren quickly put the first book away before picking up the second one and carefully taking the paper off it. Like Armin promised, it wasn’t a smut book. It had the words “Unique Photos of the World” on the cover. “Huh.” Eren opened the book, showing pictures of places Jean never saw before in his life, and they were in color. “This is new.”

“Yeah, my grandpa got me one last week, and I liked it so much I figured you might want a copy.”

“Well, thanks.” Eren flipped the page, showing a snowy forest in the next set of pictures.

“Hey Eren, if you don’t want that porn book, I’ll take it off your hands,” Connie offered as he tried to reach for the book.

Then there was the sound of the door down the hall opening, and all the boys froze. Shadis was back.

Eren grabbed the porn book before shoving it to Armin. “He might let us live if he see’s you with this.” The short boy nodded and threw it into his bag while everyone else went back to their designated desk for work.

There was the sound of the door opening, causing Jean to look up. Like the grim reaper, Shadis walked in with a glare. “What’s Arlet doing here?”

“He-he was just here to give Eren his birthday present,” Jean quickly explained, feeling a cold sweat break out.

_Please let us live, please~_

Shadis studied them for a while longer, making all three boys sweat even harder under the pressure. “Tell Sasha that when she gets back here that she has a deliver to take to Fern Street by noon.”

Jean blinked before looking back at his papers, and saw his name next to the customer’s order. “Wait, Mr. Shadis, I thought I was taking the delivery to Fern street.”

“There’s been a change in plans Kirschtein. You and Jaeger have a new assignment.” Shadis pulled out a letter from his jacket before handing it over. “You have a delivery for the country side, some place called Mirror Lake.”

There was a moment before Jean’s brain started working again. “Wait, Mirror Lake?” Jean looked over at Eren. “Isn’t that where Bodt lives?”

“One of the servants over there sent a letter to us, asking for someone to deliver a few things there by today. And since you two seem to have been there before, you’re going again.” Shadis then turned to face Connie. “As for you.” He held up a can of glitter while glaring. “What were you planning to do with all of this damn glitter? You planning on becoming a fairy?”

“N-no sir,” Connie stammered.

“Then clean up the damn mess that this made downstairs! And when you tell me it’s done, it better be!” Shoving the glitter into Connie’s chest, Shadis stormed away.

There was a faint sob from Connie as he went to do as his boss told him. Armin followed the shorter boy, disappearing from the room.

Jean and Eren were left alone, and the two turned to face each other. “… Is it really to the same doctor?” Eren raised one of his eyebrows as he asked.

Jean looked at the letter, and saw the name Kas Bodt printed on there as the recipient, as well as a curvy signature that read Annabelle Dupont, indicating she’s the one who made the order. “Wait… Annabelle was the redhead lady there, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Guess this is legit then.” Jean went over to where the maps were and started looking for a route that would hopefully be shorter than the one he and Eren got lost on. Eventually, he managed to find one. “Any idea if it’s raining in the country side?”

“One sec.” Eren went over to where the newspaper was and dug through a few stacks before pulling something up and looking at it. “It should be okay weather wise.”

“Great.” Jean was about to stand when he suddenly though about Sasha. “… Should we just leave some of the stuff you got here for her or wait till we come back.”

“… Let’s leave some stuff now, or she might eat us later.” Eren open the box then pulled out two cookies and placed them on her desk before writing a quick note for her. “Let’s go.” Eren shoved a few things into his backpack, including the book Armin gave him before rushing out of the room.

-

The trip this time took less time than before, the road was now completely dry instead of muddy, and there was hardly anyone on the road that Eren saw as he and Jean rode their bikes. This time though, they kept checking the map to make sure they were on the right path.

“You tired?”

“Not in a long shot horse-face.”

“We’ve been going for about over an hour now, you sure we ain’t lost?”

Eren stopped to check the map again. “No, we should be there in a few minutes.”

“Think we’re going to end up staying the night again?”

“I doubt it. Weather’s good, and its only 12:45.” Eren saw a strange look on Jean’s face. “What? You want to?”

“I’m just debating whether or not to keep the visit long as possible. Because on one hand, cute boy and delicious food. On the other hand, killer bunnies.” There was a shudder with the bunny part. “But if I stay longer, I have less chances of dealing with my old man if he swings by.”

“And you would rather deal with rabbits than with him. Can’t blame you.” Eren sighed. “Well, let’s get there and see what happens.”

“Right.” Jean resumed bicycling, although his face didn’t change much in expression.

Eventually, the roof came into Eren’s field of vision, and he began pedaling faster. Following the same dirt path from before, Eren and Jean got off their bikes while Eren reached for the package. They both went up to the front door and Eren knocked hard enough for someone inside to hear. He then saw Jean was fixing his hair.

_Oh god, he’s seriously going to try hitting on the son._

Eren was snapped out of his thoughts when the door opened. The huge blond boy, Reiner, stood there, and blinked in surprise. “Oh, hey! Eren and Jean, right?”

“Y-yeah. We were told to deliver something here today.” Eren held up the package that they got before leaving town.

“Okay, just a sec,” Reiner nodded before turning his head, “Annabelle? The delivery is here.”

There was a while before the older woman walked up to the door and looked at Eren and Jean. “Looks like my letter made it in time.”

“Uh, yeah.” Eren held out the package and she took it from him. “How have things been by the way?”

There was a long moment of silence from the two servants, both of them suddenly looking grim during said silence. “We’ve had better,” Reiner finally said while turning his eyes away.

“Um, okay…” Eren quickly exchanged a glance with Jean, who made a terrified face and mouthed killer rabbits, which made Eren shake his head before looking back. “Uh, so I guess we better go-”

“No.” Annabelle looked at them strictly. “Dr. Bodt happens to be here today, and he needs to make sure the material he asked for is working, so you will have to stay for a while longer before you can receive payment.”

“Uh, okay…” Eren was a little freaked out by the fact she was telling them to stay longer. “So, is there a place we should wait?”

“You two follow me. Reiner, take care of their bikes” She turned around and began walking away to the dining room.

Eren and Jean looked at the taller boy, who nodded. “You two better follow her before she gets cranky.” Reiner moved past them and picked up their bikes. “They’re going to be in the shed, is that a problem?”

Eren shook his head. “Nope.”

Jean shrugged. “That’s fine with me.”

Reiner began walking away, and both boys ran in the direction Annabelle went in. As soon as they caught up with her, she led them to one of the doors in there, on the far left of the room, leading them to yet another room – it was like a small greenhouse, that had another door that let outside. As she opened it, Eren saw a table outside on the grass, with several chairs with two people.

It was Marco and his father.

-

“Okay, now please hold your arm out.” Marco did as his father asked, his sleeve rolled up to his elbow. Papá applied some of the disinfectant before raising the needle. “Ready?”

“Yes.” Marco held still as much as possible as he felt the needle prick his skin, glad that at least the myoclonic jerks happened before the shot and not during. That would have been much more painful.

Papá quickly gave the shot and took the needle out. “Alright, that’s done.” Marco rolled his sleeve back down. “Mmm, the weather is very nice today.” Papá leaned back in the chair he was in, basking in the sun. “Glad I don’t have work today.”

The pen was a fairly medium sized area in the back yard’s garden that had a table and chairs for Marco if he was doing something outside and a place for his bunnies to roam free without anything to keep track of them – it was easy to figure out what needed to be planted, because there would be spots where the plants were either partially or completely devoured, and the entire area was enclosed by a wire fence that had a door that lead out into the rest of the back yard’s garden.

Speaking of the bunnies, all three of them were currently in Marco’s lap, and had a blanket covering them so that they did not see the needle thus hinting their impending fate. Marshmallow was nudging her face into Marco’s stomach, still seeking affection from people. Marco carefully took the blanket off them, seeing their small fluffy faces looking up at him. “Hey buddies, sorry I had to cover you with the blanket.” There was the usual grunt from Cinnamon as she looked up.

_Now for the hard part._

Marco carefully lifted Chocolate up and presented a bowl of berries on the table to him. Chocolate instantly went over to the bowl before plunging his face in. Marco watched as Papá slowly lifted another needle before sticking it in the black-brown bunny. There was a sudden pause before Chocolate resumed eating, as if nothing happened.

Marco looked back at the other two, debating if he should have Marshmallow go next or Cinnamon. Cinnamon always would try to attack Papá afterwards, but given how Marshmallow had behaving lately, she might be even more distressed than normal during the shot.

Taking a deep breath, Marco carefully raised Cinnamon to the top of the table, where she began eating with Chocolate, and looked over to where Bertholdt was outside, planting a few things. “Uh, Bert?”

“Huh?” He looked up and saw the brown bunny on the table, instantly getting the idea. “One moment.” He finished planting the small flower he was holding before going to the door that connected the bunny pen to the rest of the garden. Bertholdt quietly crept up to the table, trying his best not to alarm the brown bunny. He looked at Papá, who was slowly raising another needle behind his back so Cinnamon wouldn’t see it. While Cinnamon was still focused on the food, Bertholdt placed his hands down on her to keep her in place, earning a surprised squeak as Papá quickly moved to give Cinnamon her shot.

As soon as Papá moved his hand away, Cinnamon turned to glare at Papá before hopping up to him and using one of her small paws to hit him. There was a small ‘oof’ from Papá before she turned to face Bertholdt, who stepped back as far as possible for his safety, earning a growl from the small bunny.

“I’m sorry sweetie, but it’s for your health. We don’t want you to get sick,” Marco apologized as he reached to pet her and stroke her ears, which made her stop growling. After a minute, she started eating again, although she was still a little upset judging by the fact she was still frowning.

“Marco, can you see if you can hold Marshmallow long enough for the next part?”

“I’ll try.” Marco picked the white rabbit up and held her close. However, she responded by burying her face in his neck and started trying to crawl into his shirt. “Marshmallow, you silly girl, cut that out.” There was a small whine from her in protest as she continued to cuddle with him under his shirt. Marco looked at his father. “Uh, I don’t think this is what you had in mind?”

Papá made a small chuckle. “No.”

There was the sound of the backdoor opening up, prompting both Marco and Papá to look. Annabelle was standing there with a brown package. “Oh, Annabelle. The delivery made it?”

“Yes, so I’ll advice you in making sure everything is here.” As she walked towards him, Marco spotted two people standing behind her.

It was the same boys from last week.

“Eren? Jean?” As soon as he said the last name, he felt Marshmallow move around swiftly, poking her head out of his shirt and looking at the door. As expected, the blond boy flinched when he saw the white bunny looking at him. However, Marshmallow had a different reaction. She wiggled out of Marco’s shirt and jumped down and immediately sprinted towards him, passing Annabelle at lightning speed.

“Ah! No! Stay away!!” Jean grabbed Eren and began using him as a shield. “Nooo!!”

“Jean, let go!” Eren tried to pull away by walking into the yard, although Jean still continued to cling to him, causing Marshmallow to change the direction she was heading in.

Marco continued to watch as Eren finally broke away, leaving Jean defenseless, as Marshmallow was getting ready for her famous face-bound jump. Jean looked at her in horror as he tried to run away once more, but failed as Marshmallow managed to land on her target. “Ahh!” Jean fell down, landing on his back. “Get off! Get off! Get off!” Jean flailed his arms as he gave his orders to Marshmallow, who was snuggling his face, giving a few licks.

“I’m so sorry!” Marco immediately ran over to him and tried to take Marshmallow off Jean’s face. However, Marshmallow protested the idea by whining when she saw Marco lower his hands to remover her and started going underneath the sweater Jean was wearing.

“Nn!” Jean went absolutely still as she nudged her way underneath his sweater, going down to his stomach and stopping there. As she remained in place, Jean made a terrified groan, indicating that he was clearly scared of the situation he was in.

“Jean, I swear to god.” Eren walked over to the fallen boy and lifted the sweater up, revealing Marshmallow. Eren tried to pick her up, but as he reached for her, a set of squealing began, and she began thumping her feet against Jean’s stomach, earning a few pained groans from the recipient.

She really wanted to be with Jean. Eren took a step back and raised his hands as if surrendering.

There was a loud wail from Bertholdt, who was gripping his hair in distress. “We’re getting a second Cinnamon!”

Marco watched as Eren suddenly reached for the bottom of the slightly raised sweater before suddenly pulling it completely off. He then sat down and presented the sweater to Marshmallow, getting her to stop squealing as she suddenly stared at the sweater with interest, standing on her hind legs. “You want Jeanbo’s sweater?” He shook it a bit to emphasize the question. She jumped off of Jean and pawed at the sweater. “Here you go then! It’s yours to keep!” Eren set the sweater down on the grass, and she immediately started rubbing her face all over in, making squeaks of delight.

There was a small growl as Jean pushed himself up, glaring at Eren. “Jaeger, that was one of my favorite sweaters!”

“Would you rather be covered by rabbit instead? Cuz I can arraign that.”

There was a faint growl from Jean in response.

Slowly walking over to Marshmallow, Marco picked the sweater up, picking her up as well. He looked at Eren and Jean and smiled bashfully. “H-hi,” Marco greeted, making both boys look at him. “S-sorry about Marshmallow, she’s been a bit more demanding for attention lately.”

“It’s fine,” the boy with the two eye colors told him.

“Uh, it is Eren and Jean, right?”

“Y-yeah,” Jean confirmed while he wiped of some grass that had gotten on him when he was trapped under Marshmallow on the ground.

“Well, it’s nice to see both of you again.” Marco gave them both a smile as he cradled Marshmallow in his arms. He then noticed Jean was slightly red. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little feverish.” Marco reached out to feel Jean’s forehead when he heard his father making a small cough.

Marco turned back around and saw Papá tilting his head back to the table. “Oh, right!” Marco rushed back over and carefully held Marshmallow close as Papá picked the needle back up. Marco kept Marshmallow facing away from Papá as he lifted the needle, and watched as she yelped when she felt it prick her before burying her face back in the sweater. “Shhhh, shhh,” Marco cooed as he pet the visible fur. He then slowly set her down with the sweater on the table with the other two, nudging her close to the bowl.

Marco took a few steps back, seeing if she could finally be let go without reacting in a negative way. Marshmallow didn’t seem to mind this time, and began eating with her two friends, while remaining on the sweater. “You relaxing now girl?” She continued shoving her face into the berries, making happy-bunny sounds. Marco giggled lightly, feeling relieved that she was happy without anyone holding her.

He looked back at Eren and Jean. “Uh, did you guys have an easier time getting here than last time?” He walked back over so that he could talk with them.

“Yep. Totally. Didn’t get lost or half-way drowned in rain,” Eren answered.

“That’s good to hear.” He looked back at Jean. “Uh, you are okay, right?”

“Y-yeah, just a little worn out from running.” Jean gave a small nod with his answer.

“Oh, makes sense.” He looked down at Jean’s hand and saw a small bruise on his hand. “Hey, what happened to your hand?”

“Huh?”

“The left one, is that a bruise on it?”

Jean looked down at the hand Marco was referring to. “Oh that! Uh,” Jean hid it behind his back. “I was moving a few things last night, and something fell on it. It was kinda heavy.”

“I’m so sorry, that must have hurt.”

“It’s okay, I’ll survive it.”

Marco tilted his head, still concerned but not wanting to pry Jean’s privacy. “Well, if you insist…” He then heard his father groaning in pain. He turned around and saw Annabelle pulling him away by the ear. “Uh, Annabelle?”

“I’m just going to make sure your father checks the delivery, before he ends up spending all day getting himself stuck someplace and looses his eye patch thanks to Cinnamon.” Upon hearing the statement, Cinnamon looked up from the berries she was eating and grunted at Annabelle. Annabelle ignored the rabbit and continued pulling Papá inside. “Bertholdt, keep an eye on things here.”

“Y-yes ma’am,” The tall boy replied as she vanished inside, closing the door behind her and Papá, leaving Marco with Bertholdt, the bunnies, and the guest.

Marco turned back to the two boys. “Uh, is there anything you would like while you both wait?”

“Well, I guess Annabelle wants us to stay here…” Eren fidgeted a bit after he answered. Then Marco saw Chocolate jump off the table and trotted up to Eren, holding a strawberry in his mouth. Chocolate sat in front of the short boy, still holding the strawberry. “Uh… yes?” Chocolate made a small sound and nudged himself against Eren. Eren looked up at Marco in confusion.

“He’s trying to give you the strawberry,” Marco explained.

Eren looked back at the bunny and crotched down to him. “But isn’t this yours?”

“Just because he likes to eat a lot doesn’t mean he doesn’t share.”

Eren looked at Marco then at Chocolate before holding his hand out. Chocolate came closer and dropped the berry into his hand. “Hey, thanks, that’s really nice of you.” Eren moved his other hand to pet Chocolate, stroking his ear gently. Eren ate the berry, leaving a bit of juice on his fingers, which Chocolate began licking off. “Hey, that tickles!”

Suddenly, a blur of white hit Eren square in the chest, knocking him over. “OOF!” Eren was now on his back, and Marshmallow – still with Jean’s sweater – was kneading him. “You really do like attention, huh?” There was a small sound from her as Eren sighed and started petting her. Cinnamon then approached Eren, upset that she was being left out. However, she began inspecting a bag that he had set down next to him, and jumped in.

“Cinnamon, you naughty girl,” Marco scolded as she rummaged around in it. He kneeled down next to the bag and opened it up completely before picking her up. As he did, he saw a book in Eren’s bag. “Hm? What’s this?” Curiosity overtaking him, Marco lifted the book out of the bag and looked at the cover.

“Huh?” Eren looked up from Marshmallow and Marco showed the book to him. “That? Just some present my friend got me for my birthday.”

Marco’s brain took a while to click. “Wait, it’s your birthday?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Well, happy birthday then!” He smiled at Eren. “How old are you now?”

“F-fifteen.”

“So you are a year younger than me.”

“H-hey, it’s going to be my birthday next week!” Eren and Marco look at Jean after he said that. Jean was a faint red shade. “Er, I mean…”

“Really? That’s nice to hear.” Marco smiled at Jean to ease him up a bit. “Are you both the same age?”

“No, Jean’s a year older… or should be.” Jean glared at Eren at the comment as he pushed himself up and Marshmallow moved down with the sweater to join Chocolate with grazing.

Marco studied Jean’s face for a moment. “Mmm, you do look a little older than me. Even though I’m taller.” He tilted his head in amusement. “So you’re both spring babies. That’s pretty nice.”

Jean’s face suddenly turned bright red. “Uh, so, Marco, when’s your birthday by the way? I-I remember you said something about it being in the summer, right?”

“Yeah, it’s in the summer. June actually.”

“So you don’t have to worry about any freak snow storms.”

Marco giggled at Eren’s comment. He then felt Cinnamon move in his arms, so he set her down on the grass with the other two, leaving the book in his arms. “Your friend must be really nice. It looks like a good book.”

There was an unsure sound from Eren. “He’s the one with questionable morals… but yeah, he’s nice.”

Marco pursed his lips together before looking back at the book. “Uh, I don’t want to be rude, but is it okay if I take a look at it?”

Eren blinked. “Yeah, no problem.”

“Thank you,” Marco said as he sat down on the grass and opened the book. As he flipped to the first page, he saw that it had several photos in the mountains, and one of them had a few birds nested in a tree. “These are really beautiful,” he commented as he continued looking.

“Y-you think? They’re not too boring for you?”

“No, I really like this.” Marco smiled at Eren. Cinnamon then forced herself onto his lap, placing her front paws on the book. “Oh, do you wanna read as well?” She turned to look at him before snuggling against his neck just as the other two joined him, Marshmallow still bringing the sweater around with her. “Hey, that tickles~” Marco slowly went down on his back as he was overwhelmed by the rabbits, still holding the book up. “I’m trying to read,” he complained to them, but he was ignored as all three began licking him. The only thing he could do now was moan.

“Here.” Eren took the book for Marco. “I can hold it and you can take care of your rabbits. Just let me know when you want me to flip the page.”

Marco sat back up, cradling the bunny trio in his arms as they continued giving him affection. “Thank you. Oof.” He glanced over to Jean, who was looking over his should. “Oh, I’m sorry, am I blocking your view?” Marco went to the other side of Eren so Jean could see the book as well.

“Uh, thanks,” Jean said as he sat down, looking at Marco. Marshmallow made a small squeak of happiness as she continued to snuggle with Jean’s sweater. “… She won’t jump out at me since she’s got my sweater, right?”

“She shouldn’t.” Marco smiled at him to reassure him. He saw Jean give a small nod before sitting down next to Eren. Marco looked back at the book as Eren flipped the page. “Hey, that’s pretty,” he said as he pointed to an up-close picture of a flower.

“Yeah, it is,” Jean agreed while leaning a bit closer.

“It’s also poisonous according to the footnote,” Eren added, pointing to a small sentence next to the picture, indeed saying that it was poisonous.

“Had to make everything gritty, eh Jaeger?”

“Well, it’s still pretty,” Marco defended.

“I’m not saying it isn’t.” Eren flipped the page again, landing on several pictures of a beach, some of the pictures with seals.

Marco noticed an amazed look on Eren’s face as he looked at the pictures with the seals. “Eren, do you like seals?”

Eren blushed a little when Marco asked him. “I… I think they remind me of dogs in a way…”

“That means yes,” Jean told Marco while smirking, making Eren look at him.

“They are really cute, especially the pups,” Marco stated while smiling. There was a small whine from all three bunnies when he said that. “Don’t worry, you guys are cute too~” There was another whine, making him laugh before looking back at Eren. “What other animals do you like?”

“… Otters, both sea and freshwater kind,” Eren admitted while blushing.

“Aw, I love otters! There’s actually several otters nearby.”

Eren looked at him with excited eyes. “REALLY?!”

“Yeah. Mamá and I would go to either the river or lake to see if we could find them when they were suppose to have pups.” As soon as he said that, Eren simply froze, mouth hanging open. “Uh… Eren?”

“You used happiness to break him,” Jean commented. “In that case, please be quiet while I go ransack his bag.”

Eren came out of his daze and glared at Jean. “HEY!”

Marco shook his head while laughing at the two as they had a small squabble. After it died down again, Eren resumed flipping the pages, landing on a picture with sea otters, and the excited look came back and Jean teased him a bit.

… This was nice… being with them again. Cradling all three bunnies, Marco scooted a bit closer as Eren continued through the book.

-

“Come on,” Reiner grumbled as he tried to reach the last shelf that needed to be dusted. He started standing on his toes in a last ditch attempt before going to grab the stool when he heard the doctor and Annabelle outside. Too curious for his own good, Reiner quietly went over to the door and placed his ear against it.

“Annabelle, you didn’t have to drag me away!”

“Yes I did. I know you very well Kas.” Oh. She was using first name. This had to be interesting. “You were about to confront one of the boys about the bruise.”

“Well, shouldn’t I?”

“I don’t think the moment after your son talks to him about it is the moment when to approach him. Figured you would know that… However, it seems you were a little more focused on the fact that your son is getting rather comfortable around both of the boys.”

There was a disgruntled sound from Kas after Annabelle said that. “I should be. Marco had a seizure this morning, so there’s a chance that he might have one later today. And if there’s anything I’m certain about, it’s that those who are different are usually harassed. I don’t want him to be hurt by either one of them if they decide to make fun of him if they see him having a seizure.”

“I’m not saying I don’t understand why. But now is not the time. And I doubt Jaeger would be the kind to do so, given his heterochromia.”

“That’s not guaranteed.”

“I know. So I suggest you hurry up with checking the delivery so you can get back to Marco. Before the guest become suspicious. And I’m sure Bertholdt will intervene if something does happen.”

“… Did you intentionally have those boys come?”

“Yes. And now Marshmallow is finally relaxing.”

There was a defeated sigh from the doctor. “… You win this one.” Their footsteps started going away from outside the room, until they faded away.

Reiner stood in silence. Marco was with the guest again? Peaking out of the room to make sure if the two adults were gone, Reiner went to the indoor plant room and looked out the window. He saw Marco was sitting next to the brunette while holding his rabbits, looking at a book that the short boy was holding. The other boy was on the other side of the shorter one, looking at Marco.

As he looked at the scene a while longer, he saw that Marco seemed to be very happy. Happier than normal. Reiner blinked in surprise. He almost went out to check on him before deciding against it. Kid deserved to be happy. Especially after having a seizure this morning.

He went back to the parlor he was cleaning earlier and resumed his efforts with the duster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the scene where people realize Jeanbo - the cat - is pregnant is based on how my sisters and i found out our cat was pregnant.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY I HAVE RETURNED WITH THIS STORY!! i apologize for the hiatus; i don't want to ramble on with excuses, so let's jump right back in!

Annie groaned as she heard something fall over in the other room. “This was suppose to be my day off,” She growled before forcing her blankets of her head, and got out of bed. Stomping out of her room, she went where she heard the noise. There, she saw Reiner had knocked over a large vase. It didn’t break, but the flowers that were in it had fallen out.

“Oh. Hey.”

“What happened?”

“I was trying to reach the last shelf, but I bumped into the vase.”

She groaned and started putting the vase and it’s contents back together. “Where’s Bertholdt? He should be helping you, right?”

“Uh, he’s in the backyard.”

Annie sighed. “Let me guess, Marshmallow is throwing a huge tantrum?”

“Uh no… actually… she’s relaxing since the delivery boy from before is here,” he told her.

“… What?”

-

“Tshh, Chocolate, quit trying to eat the book!” Eren watched as Marco picked the black rabbit back up as it made a fifth attempt to nibble at the book he was holding. “You’re such a silly,” he chided before giving a small kiss.

“Wow, nothing is safe from him,” Eren said as he looked at the rabbit.

Marco made a small giggle at that. “No, nothing is.”

Eren glanced at the other two rabbits in his arms. They had flopped over, their bellies going up and down while dozing off, and Marshmallow was still holding the sweater Eren gave her. “Uh… does she normally hold onto stuff?”

“Hm?” Marco looked down at his rabbits. “Marshmallow? Not usually, only when she needs some comforting.” He cradled them, earning a few twitches.

“Aren’t rabbits usually shy though?”

“Yeah, they are… Chocolate and Cinnamon are shyer than Marshmallow though. Chocolate will come over if you have food. Cinnamon tends to be more aggressive towards people.”

“No kidding,” Jean commented. There was a small growl from the sleeping rabbit, making Jean flinch and scoot away. “… Can she hear things in her sleep?’

“Yeah, of course. She’s a rabbit.” Marco petted her ear, making the frown that had begun forming faded away.

Jean groaned in response. “I’m never going to be safe from her…”

Eren rolled his eyes at the taller boy’s remark. But Cinnamon was definitely more aggressive that Eren though rabbits could ever be.

_Maybe she thinks she’s a guard dog?_

He studied her carefully, and saw that she was running in her sleep. Yeah, he was going to go with the guard dog theory.

“Marco?”

Eren saw that the tall boy – Bertholdt – had approached them. “Everything okay here?”

“Yeah, Chocolate just keeps trying to nibble on Eren’s book,” Marco told him, adjusting the said rabbit as it was attempting to reach Eren’s book again.

“Well, it’s about the afternoon, and you still need to work on your math.”

There was a faint mourn from Marco. “No, please, I’ll get it done later,” he complained.

“You better do it now if you don’t want Annabelle to get mad.”

Marco groan before falling backwards, lying down on the grass. He used his rabbits to cover his face. “I’m not doing it.” He crossed his arms in a form of protest.

Bertholdt sighed and picked the rabbits off Marco, waking Cinnamon and Marshmallow. “Now.” He gave Marco a book he was holding, along with a pencil before walking off with the rabbits.

Marco let out another whine as he sat up again, opening the book up to a section where a sheet of paper was inserted with several scribbles on it. Eren watched the freckled boy go over a few things before scratching his head. Curious, Eren leaned over to see what he was working on.

It was roots. Looking back at Marco, he saw him chew on the tip of his pencil. “Uh… if you want, I can try helping you with that.”

Marco looked at him. “R-really?”

“Eren,” Jean interjected, “You hate math.”

“Hating math doesn’t necessarily mean I'm bad at it.”

Jean looked at Eren. “Just to warn you, he got a D in the last math test.”

Eren’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “I WAS LATE TO CLASS!” It was true – due to a mishap with the bus he rode, he arrived half an hour late, and because of that, was unable to finish the test.

“Uh…” Marco fidgeted with his pencil a bit. “Are you… sure you’re okay with helping me?”

“Yeah, I’ve got nothing else to do,” Eren told him.

“… Alright, thank you,” Marco said while smiling.

-

Jean watched Marco as he was working on his math with Eren, pouting at the fact Marco was paying attention to Eren instead of him.

“Okay, so this formula makes some more sense now?”

“Yep! I’m finally finished! Thank you again!” Jean saw Marco give that beautiful smile of his to Eren as he thanked him.

Distracted by the pure beauty of it, he didn’t notice the little rustles of grass behind him until he felt something jump on him, landing on his neck.

_Fuck no, please no._

His prayers were ignored as he felt something sniff his neck and then rub itself against his hair. “What’s on me?”

“Mm?” Marco looked over at him. “Oh! Uh… one second.” He came closer and tried to get whatever was clinging to him off, but much to Jean’s horror, it just clung more and let out a familiar whine. “One second.” Marco got up and ran off. “Bertholdt! Do you have the sweater?”

“She was getting dirt on it… so I took it for just a split second…”

“It’s okay, I’ll just give it to her again.”

After a few seconds, Marco came back, and got the easily identifiable rabbit off of Jean. “I’m sorry again,” he apologized as he cradled and wrapped Marshmallow in the sweater.

“Apology accepted,” Jean wheezed.

Marco looked down at the rabbit he was holding. “Marshmallow, you need to stop scaring Jean,” He scolded in a gentle voice.

“Cinnamon, Cinnamon no,” Bertholdt began begging, prompting Jean to look. The brown rabbit had something in her mouth – a piece of paper or an envelope – and was glaring at the tall boy, who was still holding Chocolate. “Please, just give it here… It’s for Dr. Bodt…” She made a mad dash to the side, knocking a chair over, as she was about to go inside.

“About” would be the key word, as when the door opened, the other servants from before appeared. The rabbit couldn’t get passed the combined mass of Krista’s and Annie’s skirts, at least not fast enough for her to escape Reiner picking her up, taking the paper from her. “Seems like someone has his hands full,” he commented as he handed the paper back. “Where’s Marshmallow?”

Bertholdt pointed at Marco, who was still holding the swaddled rabbit.

“Wh-Oh my god that’s cute,” Reiner commented.

“Has it stopped?” Ymir peaked over Reiner while asking. “Has the age of the tyrannical Marshmallow ended?” Jean felt his stomach sink at the implication of that.

“For now,” Marco answered, giving a small peck to the white fur of Marshmallow’s head.

“Well, Annabelle asked if you had a preference for eating indoors or outdoors today, since she and your dad are almost ready to come back up and eat,” Reiner informed him as he petted Cinnamon, who looked even tinier in his hands than what she already was. “She also said the other two can eat with us.”

“Really? Well, since the weather has finally cleared up, I think outdoors.”

“Okay, I’ll go let them know.” Reiner started to head back in before stopping. “Hey Annie, you sure you don’t want to stay in bed?”

“I need to eat to take the painkillers Dr. Bodt gave, and I don’t like eating in bed,” She answered, suddenly holding the part below her stomach.

_Is she having cramps?_

“Alright. Be right back.” The blond boy disappeared back inside, just before handing Cinnamon over to Ymir.

She came over to where Jean was sitting with Eren while Marco remained standing. “Hey,” the freckled girl greeted, setting Cinnamon down. “How’s the math?”

“Good, Eren helped me finish it.”

“Really?” She looked at the boy with surprise.

“Yeah!”

“What about the other one? Or is he only just for appeasement to Marshmallow?”

Jean growled at the question.

“He’s been nice,” Marco defended. “I had to let Marshmallow keep his sweater though so she would stop jumping on him.”

Ymir looked at Jean. “That explains the ugly shirt.”

“Wh-HEY! MY SHIRT ISN’T UGLY!”

“Uh, are you color blind? That shade of grey with that cut? No, just no.”

“What’s wrong with it?” He stood up in self-defense, but part of him started to dread that Marco thought it was ugly.

“Clearly you’ve never worked with a seamstress,” Ymir sighed. “Lemme see if I can find something to cover the ugly up.” She went back in for a while, popping out with a shirt similar to the one he was loaned when they first came. “Here, change.”

“If I do, I’m going inside to change.”

“But Marshmallow wants to see a good show,” Ymir told him as she pointed at the tiny rabbit in Marco’s arms. “It’s better to just show her.”

She was then pulled away by Krista, who told him, “You don’t have to.”

“Thanks,” Jean mumbled awkardly.

Krista took the shirt from the other girl and started to head back in, presumably to put the shirt away.

Jean glanced over at Marco, and saw that Marshmallow had her front paws sticking out of the sweater-wrap, and was pointing them towards him. He shuddered and started to take a few steps back. “Stop looking at me you,” He warned her. Marshmallow’s only response was a small sound as she started to wave the stubby little paws.

“Wow, she’s pretty much enamored by him,” Eren commented as he stood up as he looked at the bunny, and frowned. “Wait… that… what?”

“What is it?” Marco cocked his head to the side in his usual adorable manner.

Eren grasped one of Marshmallow’s paws and looked at them with confusion. “WHERE ARE THE FOOTPADS ON THIS THING?!”

Jean was about to ask what the hell Eren was saying, but then he saw it as well – there was only fur visible on Marshmallow’s paws. No pads like the dogs or cat. Just the fur.

“Oh those? Rabbits don’t have footpads.”

Jean was now staring at Marco along with Eren, both in total confusion. “What? That’s can’t be right!”

“Nope, it’s the truth.” Marco then held Marshmallow’s other paw to show them. “But the fur on their feet is pretty thick, so it serves the same purpose. They could get sores if there was bare skin because the skin is very sensitive.”

Jean couldn’t find anything to say. His mind was still in a state of shock.

“I feel so lied to,” Eren gasped. This was probably the biggest mind fuck of the year.

“We’re back.”

Returning partially to reality, Jean saw that Krista and Reiner were back, along with Dr. Bodt and Annabelle. “Well,” The older man greeted, giving a smile to them, “Shall we have lunch?”

-

“No, Chocolate,” Marco chided as he set the dark rabbit down from the table. “You can’t eat the bread. It’s bad for you. But we got some watermelon for you.” He quickly grabbed the plate for the bunnies and showed it to him. As expected, Chocolate started digging in, and Cinnamon dashed over to eat as well.

Marco looked over at Marshmallow, who was coming over with the sweater grasped in her mouth. He came over and wrapped the sweater around her neck like a cape, carefully folding it and using spare hair clips he had on him so that it wouldn’t be too long for the tiny rabbit, so that she would be able to run like usual. Her pace picked up and she soon joined the other two to eat.

“Marco,” Annabelle called, making him look over at the table, where everyone else was getting ready to sit down, “Can you help me grab the rest of the food and salt?”

“Alright!” He followed her inside and to the kitchen. As he was looking for anything else they would need, he heard her cough and turned around, seeing her holding his liquid medicine. Grimacing, he opened his mouth and let the spoon enter. It was more than usual, but it was because of the seizure he had earlier. “Bleh.”

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah. Eren helped me with finishing my math, so I have that done,” he answered before getting some water to wash down the syrup’s taste.

Annabelle blinked with surprise. “He did?”

“Yep!”

He picked up the plate where Krista had placed the fried plantains and they began walking back the way they came. “Hm… perhaps you should ask your father to hire him as a tutor.”

“Really?”

“I’m sure if you make a good enough argument, and if Eren agrees to do it. Perhaps he could bring Jean with him to entertain Marshmallow.”

“That would be nice,” Marco agreed, “But I think it will be a little mean to have Jean over just to help relax her.”

“Mmm… perhaps we can find something else for him to do then.”

Coming back out, Marco saw that the last two open chairs were next to Papá. “Hi Papá,” He greeted before sitting down on Papá’s left side as Annabelle sat on his right side. “How are you?”

“Better now that I’m outside again,” Papá answered while smiling. “I see Marshmallow has improved a bit.”

“Yeah, thanks to Jean’s sweater. But I’m worried she won’t want to give it back.”

“I suppose we’ll have to offer a replacement for Jean later in that case,” Papá mused. He looked at Jean, who was sitting on the other side of the table between Eren and Annie. “Would that be alright?”

“Sure… pretty sure I’ll get eaten by one of the rabbits if I try to take the sweater back,” Jean answered.

There was a brief chuckle from Papá at that. “Alright then.”

“Uh…” Marco looked at Eren as he let out a confused sound, “What’s this banana thing?” He pointed at the plate Marco and Annabelle brought out.

“Fried plantains. They’re similar to bananas.”

“First time I’ve heard of them…”

“They’re more popular in Latin America,” Marco confessed, “But they’re really good!”

Eren gave a small nod before looking at the bowl Annabelle brought out. “And that?”

“Oh, it’s curry!” As soon as he said that, Eren turned pale. “What?”

“Uh… It’s just…”

“Eren hates spicy stuff.”

Marco watched as Eren’s face turned red and he glared at Jean. “Hey!” He looked back at Marco. “I-I don’t hate it! I’m… still getting use to really spicy stuff.”

“It’s okay, Dr. Bodt can’t handle spicy foods either. Makes his stomach upset,” Annabelle informed the boy while gesturing her hand at him, “I cooked some stew for him. You can have some of that.”

Marco’s father turned himself so that he was able to see her directly. “Don’t forget who’s not keeping a certain collection of teenager year photos upstairs.”

“Don’t forget who has known you since middle school, and knows all of your secrets.”

Papá narrowed his eye at her at that. “Mmmm…”

“Ah, can we start eating?” Marco hoped to break the tension between Papá and Annabelle before it got bad.

Papá returned his attention to him and smiled. “Of course.”

“Yay!”

Everyone had served themselves – Marco, Jean, Ymir, and Annabelle helped themselves to the curry while everyone else had stew.

After a few minutes, Papá began conversing with Eren and Jean. “So you two boys managed to get home in one piece?”

“Yeah. My family was freaked out at first, but they managed to calm down,” Eren told him in between eating.

“I see. Did you get in trouble with your employer?”

“Nah, he was cool… for once.”

Papá raised his eyebrow. “For once?”

“He’s a former drill sergeant. He’s kind of obsessed with upholding order.”

“Oh.”

“But yeah, he understood.”

Papá nodded and looked at Jean. “And your family?”

Jean froze for a moment. “Oh! Uh… my dad wasn’t home, so he didn’t know. My little sister was crying when I got back though…”

Papá nodded while looking at Jean. “I see… what do your parents do?”

“My mom works at a restaurant.”

Marco tilted his head curiously. “What about your dad?”

Jean didn’t answer for a while. “He’s… I’m not entirely sure to be honest. My parents split up a few years back. He doesn’t really stay in the picture. Consistently I mean.”

Marco immediately regretted asking. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t think!”

“Nah it’s okay,” Jean told him while shrugging. “Not the first time someone has asked. Not going to be the last time.”

The shame Marco felt for asking wasn’t going away. Fidgeting with his fork, he remained silent until Eren asked him, “Marco, how long have you been home schooled?”

“All my life, I guess? My grandparents started me with kindergarten stuff, and I get different tutors.”

“Tutors from famous private schools?”

“Nope,” Marco answered while shaking his head. “Most of them don’t have ties to those kinds of places. Right Papá?” Marco looked at his father when asking just to be sure.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Eren made a confused face. “Why? There are lots of good private schools that I’m sure would love to send tutors over.”

There was a grimaced sound from Papá. “Not as much as you would think.”

The smaller boy made another confused face. “What do you mean?”

Papá set his fork down before answering. “My parents had me go to different private schools when I was younger, and I found them all… restrictive. And it didn’t matter if the teachers were teaching you at home or not. They would have the same nature.”

“What kind of restrictive are we talking about?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Papá assured Eren while smiling.

Eren raised an eyebrow before continuing. “What about your mom then?”

“She went to catholic school,” Marco answered.

“AH-HAH!” Jean jumped up from his seat. “THAT’S WHERE YOU GOT YOUR MANNERS!”

“She got kicked out several times,” Annabelle plainly said, making Jean’s determined face fall.

“Hah?”

“Four, if I remember correctly.” She looked over at Papá. “Or was it five?”

“Seven.”

Eren, who had began drinking out of his cup, gagged at that. He turned his head away as he accidentally spat out what was in his mouth before looking back at Papá. “Seven times?”

Papá nodded. “I thought she was joking when she first told me. But her parents confirmed it.”

The following sound was a confused squeak from Jean. “Hah?”

Marco simply blinked.

-

Jean set his fork down on his plate, finally done with his food. “That curry was amazing.”

“Thank you,” Annabelle answered as she was helping to clear the table. “I’m glad to see you enjoyed it. Unlike someone.” She said that last part while looking at Dr. Bodt, who made a low growl in response.

Jean was about to get up when he felt something plop down on his foot. Letting out a whine, he looked down to see Marshmallow sitting on his foot. He first tried pulling his foot away, but then she just sat back down on it after that. Then he tried lifting it, only for her to grab it and pull it back down to the ground. “Lemme go,” he begged as he tried again. This time, the other two ran over and helped Marshmallow hold his foot in place.

_Oh great, now they all want to eat me!_

“Hey, knock that off!” Marco, in his grace, got down and rescued him from the rabbits. “How many times are you guys going to bother him?” Marshmallow tried to reach out for Jean, Cinnamon made a growl directed at him, and Chocolate was trying to get on the table.

“Marco, get them away from the table before they try eating something from the plates,” Annabelle instructed as she was gathering the empty plates.

“Yes Annabelle.” Marco began to walk away with his rabbits, taking them over to where their food bowl was. “You guys already finished all of your food? Or did Chocolate eat it all again?” The darker rabbit nudged himself against Marco’s freckled neck, making him giggle.

Jean continued to watch him as he took the rabbits to the side of the rabbit pen that had a mini obstacle course.

But then he saw Annabelle leaning close to Dr. Bodt. “Doctor, I think there was something Marco wanted to ask you earlier,” she began.

“Hm? Alright.” The older man got up and walked over to Marco.

Curious, Jean leaned his chair as much as possible to watch, even though they were out of earshot at this point. After a few minutes, the doctor came over to Eren. “Eren, Marco said you helped him with his homework?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it. May I ask if you can come again to tutor him?”

Jean froze at that.

_What?_

“Tutor? I’m not that good. My friend Armin might be better at that stuff.”

Dr. Bodt raised an eyebrow. “Armin?”

“Yeah, he’s in honors and advance placement. I can ask him if he would like to-“

“Would it work with his schedule? Those kinds of courses do demand a lot of time.” Dr. Bodt eyebrow narrowed with concern.

Jean looked over at Eren. “He does spend a lot of time at his extra course lectures…”

There was a strained sound from Eren. “Well… maybe I could come by and see if I could help, and bring some of Armin’s old notes, in a week?”

“Excellent! What days would be best?”

“… Thursdays and Saturdays I think?”

A smile grew on Dr. Bodt’s face. “Perfect! And feel free to bring Jean if you want to.”

Not sure if he heard right, Jean turned to face the doctor. “Hah?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not planning on using you as testing material,” Dr. Bodt laughed. “But only if you are interested of course.”

“Uh n-no,” Jean began, “Not a problem at all…. Wait, you’re not planning on giving me to the rabbits, are you?” He looked at where they were still playing with Marco. Marshmallow was still with his sweater

“Oh no, don’t worry,” Dr. Bodt assured him. “But if you do want something to help out with, I’m sure Annabelle can find something for you.”

Stunned by his offers, Jean nodded dumbfounded at the doctor, who got up and said something about getting their checks ready.

-

“So I guess I’ll see you guys in a week,” Marco chirped as he followed Eren and Jean to the front door.

“Yep, and I’ll be sure to bring notes on roots and exponentials for you to look over,” Eren offered.

Marco smiled and nodded before looking at Jean. “I’m sorry though. I tried to get your sweater back from Marshmallow, but she’s taken a liking to it…” As if overhearing him, Marshmallow came running over, launching on to Jean’s leg.

“Oh god, get her off, get her off,” Jean began to ramble.

As soon as he picked her up, there was a small whine from Marshmallow. “I’m sorry sweetie, but he has to go.” Unexpectedly, Marshmallow let out a wailing sound that could have been interpreted as no. He had never seen this kind of behavior before. “But he will be coming back in a few days,” Marco told her hastily, and she did stop screaming. “So can you wait a few days?” Marshmallow responded by nudging against his face and licking him. “Thank you.”

“Marco, there you are.” Papá walked up to the boys at the door and held out the checks for them, Annabelle right behind him. “Our phone line won’t be fixed until the day after tomorrow, but here’s the phone number in case you need to call and ask on anything else,” Papá told Eren as he showed a small note that was with the tips.

“Alright, thanks,” Eren nodded and took the note and check. “… You aren’t giving us the wrong amount are you?”

“Is it too low?”

Eren’s double-colored eyes widened. “TOO LOW?! IT’S OVER A HUNDRED DOLLARS! IT’S WAY TO HIGH!”

“You probably get underpaid already, and I doubt people give you boys enough tips for working so hard,” Papá told him, “So I feel it's only fair if I give you an amount that can eventually even things out.”

Eren seemed to be speechless at that.

Jean took his check and quickly said, “Thanks.” As soon as he put it away, he started to push Eren out. “We’ll be sure to come back.”

Marco smiled and then remembered what Jean said earlier about his birthday being a week away. “Oh, Jean! Lidia will be back in five days, so if you’re interested, I can ask her to make a cake for your birthday. Oh, but you probably have plans already!”

A faint blush appeared on the blonde’s face. “Oh, w-well, sure. I wasn’t planning on anything.”

Marco blinked in surprise. “Not even with your family?”

“My mom will be at work, and my siblings have a field trip that will be for 3 days to one of the larger cities to look at some museums… and I don’t think my dad will be dropping by.”

Marco bit the inside of his mouth when Jean mentioned the dad. “W-well then we can have a birthday party for you here!”

There was a muffled “Ah-hem!” from Annabelle, who was eyeing Marco before shifting her gaze to Eren.

“After studying of course.” Marco looked up at Papá. “We can have a party here, right?”

Papá seemed surprise, but quickly smiled. “I see no harm. Plus Annie didn’t let us celebrate her birthday, so I think we’re in need of one.”

That seemed to pull Eren back from space. “Wait, she had a birthday?”

“Yeah, it was the day when you both came. But she doesn’t enjoy parties all that much, so we gave her cake in the morning for breakfast and that was about it,” Marco told them. It was true that Annie didn’t like doing things on her birthday… although since Adrien was still around at the time, holding a party wouldn’t have been very appealing to Marco.

“Wow… well, thanks,” Jean told him. “Um, take care until then I guess.”

Both boys said goodbye and then left.

“Marco,” Annabelle began, “You better make sure to get your homework for all subjects done before any parties.”

“Yes ma’am,” Marco answered. Marshmallow started to rub her face on his own, holding him with her paws. “Tssh, you excited to have Jean over for his birthday?” He started to head back out to the back yard, feeling pleased that things seemed to be going well.

-

Bertholdt was helping to clear Dr. Bodt’s study as the doctor was filling out some paper work for an upcoming surgery, and nervously glanced over. “Dr. Bodt, are you sure having a party for one of the boys isn’t a bad idea?” Bertholdt still couldn’t believe that he agreed to Marco’s wild proposal.

“It can’t hurt… and I am concerned about Kirschtein’s father is treating Jean and his siblings.”

Oh. He was starting to narrow down a future target.

He wasn’t going to delve into that right now though. “Do you have any plans for the party?”

“A few ideas, but I’ll run them buy Marco first,” Dr. Bodt answered. “By the way, you said there was a letter for me?”

“Oh, yes.” Bertholdt pulled out the envelope that Cinnamon had snatched from him earlier. It was part of the evening mail that was always delivered by another mail system, but it stuck out as it was premium mail, and from law officials in Belgium. “I’m not sure why it was sent though.”

Dr. Bodt took the letter and opened it. After reading some of it, a frown had grown on his face and he was gripping the paper hard enough to make it crumple. “S-sir? Is everything alright?”

“It was about one of my brothers.”

Bertholdt felt his stomach churn at that. Dr. Bodt seemed to always get into a foul mood whenever someone brought up most his immediate family in a conversation… especially his brothers and father. “Sh-shall I take the letter back?”

“No, get Annabelle. I need to discuss this with her.” His voice became sharper than what Bertholdt was used to when they were not in the basement.

Hastily, Bertholdt nodded and went for the door. But he saw the doctor raising his hand to touch the heavily scarred side of his face.

He made sure not to make any noise when closing the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally some progression! what a shocker X3
> 
> boy wouldn't it be great if more people would tip like Dr. Bodt? -cries in retail-


End file.
